Sunday, January 31, 2010

34659 Day 153

weekend


ours was pretty great!  now, on to another great week.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

34559 Day 152

holmes

for a period of my childhood i was obsessed with sherlock holmes.  i suppose it might be like some boys who get obsessed with superheros and comic books.  every time we went to a bookstore i would go straight for the section where this book was shelved and covet it mightily.

as i remember it i asked for it often but never got it.  there was one moment, in arizona of all places, that i asked for it quite passionately (facing a 15 hour drive home) and was turned down.  


don't cry for me though because i did receive it for a birthday, or possibly christmas, not long after that.  i've read every story in this book.  and then, at some point, my obsession with holmes passed, replaced with something else.  

my interest was piqued when i heard a movie was in the works.  i saw it tonight and it did not disappoint.  justice was done to a boyhood passion.  and robert downy jr. is the perfect holmes.

Friday, January 29, 2010

34459 Day 151

ctk-dorchester

the last two days have been dedicated to current events, now back to my real life.  
i had the chance to meet with dan, the lead pastor of ctk-dorchester.  


yes, that is correct, there is a church plant in dorchester called Christ the King.  happens to be presbyterian and planted from a church in cambridge which was planted from tim keller's church in new york.

they are here for good reasons and are clearly doing good things in the neighborhood.  they also have a few members who live on our block which is kind of fun.

the best part of the conversation was when i had a chance to talk about i/we do with sojourn and i was able to draw out our "missional map".  he was really impressed with it and said: "i've seen a lot of people get really excited about campus ministry and they always have some new idea, but it is either not that new or not that interesting...this, though, is really interesting to me."  awesome!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

34359 Day 150

j.d.

today one of the great american authors passed away. jd salinger may not have been the most prolific of writers, and might be as famous for being reclusive as for his writing, but what he did write is profound, frustrating, important, and deeply resonant with young people generation after generation.

he will most be remembered for the catcher in the rye, and for good reason, but my favorite has always been franny and zooey...the tale of the search for authenticity and maybe even more importantly, an authentic Jesus.

salinger's work is referenced all over the place in pop culture. my favorite reference is in the five iron frenzy song "superpowers," which i think captures how salinger might have felt (and certainly how i feel from time to time...even if i'm not famous):

"i sometimes feel i'm holden caulfield, sometimes jack keroac. i wanted to be famous now i want to take it back." reece roper/five iron frenzy

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

34259 Day 149

ipad

so ipromised rmac that iwould blog about the ipad. here's my ipad blog. looks like a big ol' iphone.

cool.

maybe a good time to read this article again.

more relevant life-happenings will be updated tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

34159 Day 148

all_souls

one of my goals for 2010 is to do some reading about the history of boston. i'm working my way backwards...starting with some more recent books. this one tells a story about "southie," and this one tells the story of the civil rights movement in boston. i'm excited to learn more about where we live!

Monday, January 25, 2010

34059 Day 147

restructure

my role with sojourn is taking more form and structure this semester. i am going to be able to focus more of my time towards to UMASS, which i am super excited about, while also leading us forward in our approach to community groups. i am excited about this because it encompasses a lot of things i like to do such as: think about community...get people excited about community...make sure communities are missional...continue to work towards holistic discipleship...dream about teaching arcs and catechisms...hang out with students on the best campus in town. pretty great, right?! plus i "have" to read a bunch of books like the one here.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

33959 Day 146

it_might_get_loud

lots to report on from today, but most of it is going to need to get processed a little bit before getting "blogged".

so, i'll talk about this movie amy and i saw today that i've been wanting to see for a while. it might get loud is about three great guitarists: the edge from U2, jimmy page from Led Zeppelin, and jack white from The White Stripes. they get together to talk about the guitar, their style, and their process for creating art through their instrument.

i loved every minute of it, but, and i'm probably generationally biased, i loved every minute they focused on jack white the most. having read the book getting the blues i knew most of his references and then i enjoyed these two quotes (which i am paraphrasing) very much...

on guitars: "i choose broken and beat up guitars and try to make some beautiful come out of them."

on the creative process: "it's a struggle...in genesis we see that part of man's curse is to work the ground and the elements...it's not easy...you have to struggle through until you get it." (as he said this they showed concert footage of him playing the guitar until his fingers start bleeding all over it...crazy).

Saturday, January 23, 2010

33859 Day 145

A&D

lots of good things today...

...not the least of which: amy and destanie hanging out. thanks for the pic =)

Friday, January 22, 2010

33759 Day 144

leadership_gathering

i am really excited about our new leadership gathering. our hopes for this include strengthening our "dna" in our leaders, helping students see the bigger picture of what sojourn is doing in the city, and to create energy for participating in what God is doing on campuses and in relationships. tonight was the first of six or seven of these gatherings and i have high hopes for what these times will produce.



Thursday, January 21, 2010

33659 Day 143

old_guys

swimming runs in my family. i've never done it competitively but when i was in college i swam laps, mostly during my junior and senior years before i hurt my shoulder, for exercise. as an aside, i did so many more active things in college: lots of soccer and ultimate frisbee, weight lifting, racquetball, basketball, volleyball, etc. not so much anymore.

which is why i am trying to make 2010 the "year i got back in the pool." second aside: umass allows clergy a free community pass to their athletic facilities, which i discovered thanks to my industrious wife. time to take full advantage of that!

anyway, when i swam in college there was this group of old guys (60+ years old) who swam at the same time as i did. they swam very, very slow laps, and then retired to the locker room where they would sit around naked and complain about politics and the giants and whatever else was going on in the world at the time. not to brag or anything, but i was in way better shape than them (it's simple age physics: 21 year olds have "better" bodies than 61 year olds). nonetheless, i always felt very self-conscious and would often take a locker as far away from them as possible.

yet, i was strangely attracted to this subculture. here were guys who were totally comfortable around each other, probably due to the fact that they had shared this routine for about 25 years. i admired that...and still do.

so far, if this subculture also exists at umass, i have not found it. in fact, the sample size is small at this point, but it appears that i am actually the oldest person using the pool between the hours of 10 am and 12 pm.

perhaps it is part of my calling to initiate this tradition at the clark athletic center =)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

33559 Day 142

maps

we continue to to work on defining what we do at sojourn through mapping. our "missional map" is actually a bit more complex than even this picture gives credit to, but i think you can get the idea. it's been particularly helpful for me to think about my role and how i fit in to the sojourn story. as you can see, my area of the map is now including community groups, something that i have always enjoyed thinking about and creating vision for. so, i am really excited to start exercising that muscle again as i help move us forward with groups and developing missional disciples.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

33459 Day 141

tuesday

nothing quite like yesterday, which is a good thing...

voting


swimming


weird stuff at umass


finally, if you haven't yet, check out my post from yesterday

Monday, January 18, 2010

33359 Day 140 pt.2

scariest_moment_of_my_adult_life?

preface to the story: we live in a rougher part of town...some people call it the ghetto (although i get really fired up when i hear non-natives, like myself, call it the ghetto. in salinas, it was always about the zip code: "oh, you're from the 93905?" followed by patronizing glances and concerned, furrowed brows. my wife grew up in the 93905 so i get a little sensitive about that now. same goes here in boston...don't call dorchester the ghetto, please, you'll make me sad and i might lose respect for you).

anyway, we do, in fact, live in a rougher part of town. i like to think of it as a place where people's brokenness is just a little bit closer to the surface than it might be in other neighborhoods. but that is not the point of the preface...the point is, we live here, yes, but it is still easy to live in a bubble and to be sheltered from the some of that brokenness. even living here, one has to be intentional about not forgetting all the bad stories that are being told around you. but, there are times when you cannot escape the reality of the brokenness in our neighborhood and that is what this story is about.

the story: at 11:30 am today i was waiting at the fields corner T stop for the alewife train. while i was waiting a man (mid thirties, caucasian) appeared on the ashmont platform directly across from where i stood (apparently waiting for the train moving in the opposite direction). he was struggling to figure out how to put on his back pack. because he was drunk.

he never did figure it out because a more pressing issue arose. suddenly, to the disgust of the seven or eight others standing with me, the man dropped his pants all the way down and started to piss on the wall. someone yelled a name in his direction and turned away disgusted. an MBTA official ran up the stairs and scolded him for his actions but, for reasons i still cannot figure out, did not kick him out of the station. it took him several minutes to figure out how to secure his pants again so they would not fall down.

finally, the PA announced that the alewife train was "approaching." the man on the other side exclaimed, "oh, s#!t i'm going the wrong way," and threw his back pack into the train well. everyone on my side surged forward in unison, several telling him not to jump in. he did think about it for a second, but then plunged in anyway after his bag.

at this point, i started freaking out a little. we are very near where the train enters the station, i think, and it might not have time to stop, and it is the time of the day when the trains are moving pretty quick, and suddenly the prospect of seeing a drunk vagrant get killed is a real possibility. i fully admit i questioned whether i could actually watch that happen and considered running down stairs until it was over.

the PA now announced that the train was "arriving" (you always get two warnings), and the man threw his bag into the path of the oncoming train and followed it again. he was standing right in front of me now, several feet down, and it was at this point that he actually realized that there was no way up. "help me up," he screamed.

i grabbed the dude's arm and pulled with all my might, but nothing happened. a good 200 plus pounds of dead weight. i was really panicked now...not only was he going to die, but he was going to die with his hand in my hand, and my arm might get ripped off in the process. i could see the train bearing down on us at this point. the driver could see what was happening and his ashen face communicated that he might not be able to slow the subway in time. "come on man," i screamed, "you gotta help," hoping he'd at least try to jump or something.

an older gentleman, african-american and probably close to sixty, came to help me. i could hear a young girl behind me crying and yelling, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod," over and over.

in a moment of genuine, life and death, panic the human brain does wierd things...here are a few thoughts that i had: should i let him go, jump in and push him to the other side? we still have time to do that. do i keep trying to pull him out until the last second? if i stay with this to the last possible moment, what does it say about me if i let him go and save my arms and probably my head too? how far am i willing to go to help this guy?

finally a third person, a tough looking african-american woman, jumped in and helped us pull the guy out right as the train stops directly in front of me. had we done nothing, he probably would have been ok, although that is very difficult to say.

the true hero of the story, as i found out after we got him out, is the woman who ran down to the end of the platform (about 100 feet away) and waved frantically to help alert the train operator that someone was on the track. without the extra seconds she bought us, the dude would likely have been squished.

during the 30-60 seconds that this happened, i have to admit, i was really, really scared. i was surprised at how strong my reaction was to not wanting to see someone die. the others who witnessed this, mostly young ladies, were visibly shaken and crying.

the momentum from pulling the guy up caused me to fall back and it took a second to take some inventory and get back up. my heart was beating so hard i though i would crack a rib, and my hands shook well in to the afternoon.

as i sat there collecting myself i uttered a half-prayer, half-profanity: "jesus."

the guy we "saved" look at me and said, as he was being escorted off the platform: "hey man, don't ever take the lord's name in vain in front of me again."

afterward: this is not a story about the crazy place we live. this is not a story about something steve did that was mildly heroic, or mildly stupid, depending on your perspective (to further make the case against heroism, i should tell you that there were a million other nasty thoughts that i did not share in the thought section of the story). this is not a story about dumb things people do when they are drunk.

this is a story about hiding. we, especially we who are privileged, have created a lot of strategies for keeping the mess of the world out. amy and i do it and we relocated to a messy place on purpose.

but no matter how good the strategy we ultimately cannot shut all of the mess out. an earthquake destroys a small, poor country. a drunk guy jumps in front of a train. a kid from a broken family needs a friend.

mess.

but also invitations to better stories...

33259 Day 140

king

Sunday, January 17, 2010

33159 Day 139

reunion


i haven't talked too much about our church in this space, but we are so glad to be a part of the reunion community. good stuff this morning from tim...good stuff in response to the situation in haiti...and good people abound. also, thanks to nate for reading dr. king's words this morning, that was awesome!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

33059 Day 138

date!

amy and i got a few barnes and noble gift cards for christmas so today we made a book date! we went for a drive, browsed the book store, made some picks (amy is really excited about this one and i am stoked to read this one of these days), and then got a snack at chipotle.

it was so good to have a day together!

Friday, January 15, 2010

32959 Day 137

pho_2000

just got back from dinner with our friends (and neighbors) andy and laura. we walked down the street to enjoy some vietnamese food at pho 2000. great food, good conversation, and it was fun to finally explore more of our neighborhood with friends!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

32859 Day 136

deliberate_simplicity

had some down time around the offices this afternoon during the sojourn board meeting and i discovered this:

apparently, the reunion staff is reading through it, which is very cool. it's awesome to see something i was apart of pre-boston having an influence on life in boston and not just because it was my personal experience (if that makes any sense).

for those of you who don't know/can't remember i was a part of a ctk plant here =)

and if anyone questions my street cred then check this out: i have a copy of the book from when it looked like this...

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

32759 Day 135

year_end

tomorrow is a big day for sojourn...we have a meeting with our board of directors to go over how the last year/semester has gone. it's been another opportunity to think about some of the stuff amy and i have gone through over the last few months. it's weird to think that it was still only three months ago that we were very much planning on purchasing an old house to fix up. in the middle of that though there have been a lot of victories too. thankful for a chance to reflect on those today.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

32659 Day 134

midrash

i just finished this book you see displayed to the left. what a weird, frustrating, thought provoking little book. there are a lot of theological insights that are not really "orthodox," but if you can get over that, there is a lot of truth to mull over (see midrash). the author imagines jacob encountering seven teachers during his dream of the ladder (the whole book is a meditation on Genesis 28:16).

my favorite "teacher" has this conversation with jacob (and this becomes the deep thought of the day): jacob is lamenting having "missed" meeting God during his dream (or, at the very least, is lamenting his inability to remember the encounter in detail). the teacher, in response to jacob's lament says:

"look at your hands, those are the hands of God."


Monday, January 11, 2010

32559 Day 133

clarity

we spent a long time today discussing roles and how we work together as a team. this was an extremely relevant topic for me having spent the last couple of weeks reflecting on my first semester...an exercise that left me seeking some clarity in my role. i may have found it today.

also, we're really big on diagrams with circles and lines =)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

32459 Day 132

food

interesting conversations this evening about food, gardening, the summer, kids in the neighborhood, csa's, health and wellness, etc.

i'm excited to see where this leads!

Saturday, January 09, 2010

32359 Day 131

3_years!

amy and i started dating 3 years ago today. which means that we have now spent the same amount of time in "short-distance" as we did in "long-distance." btw, short-distance is better.

thanks babe for 3 awesome years!

Friday, January 08, 2010

32259 Day 130

sick


not feeling too hot after this week...need a day off! thankfully, that day is tomorrow.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

32159 Day 129

new_years_reading



books i will be reading in the near future!

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

32059 Day 128

pray_for...


this is a really boring picture of a really cool thing. amy and i, to try to be more disciplined in our praying, put a big piece of paper on the wall and started writing stuff on it today (there is more stuff than what you see, but we like to be at least a little mysterious). i'm excited to see how this develops and if it turns out to be a useful tool.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

31959 Day 127

green_line

a short story about work and ministry happening anywhere at an time.

today i had to leave a meeting early to go to work. this made me a little sad because i was enjoying the conversation and thinking about what we do and ministry in the city, etc.

i left the meeting, jumped on the green and was immediately greeted by a BU student who I had met at an event last semester. she had just returned from Urbana and remembered what we were doing in dorchester and had several questions about quincy street and other stuff we're involved with. then i wasn't so sad about leaving the meeting.

Monday, January 04, 2010

31859 Day 126

the_office

back to work! lots to do to get this semester off to a good start. good to be back in it today.

for those of you who will care about this...this is NOT my desk. it's more of a communal table...and hopefully a metaphor for all the work we have to do this semester (on campus, not on the desk/table...you know what i mean).

Sunday, January 03, 2010

31759 Day 125

first_day


amy's first day of clinicals starts tomorrow. this is the beginning of the final stretch! already got her outfit picked out and everything. looks good =)

Saturday, January 02, 2010

31659 Day 124

dogs

should we adopt moe? feedback welcome!

link here (scroll down to moe...should be the first dog i the que).



on the topic of bad stories...i try not to post about this stuff if possible, but i think it highlights a couple of the points i made last sunday.

Friday, January 01, 2010

31559 Day 123

new_year

ran over to our neighbors after we got back to celebrate the new year with some folks from our neighborhood. thanks, andy and laura for having us over!

then, i spent most of today at sbux in a conversation with ramon about evolution, story, God putting his family back together, heaven, and does life have any meaning! not a bad day at work =)

happy new year!

ps. check this out