Cynicism

In case your interested, the Grace OPC blog has had some material on cynicism lately.  Pastor Dave has been reading a book dealing with the topic, and then I found myself reading a book with some chapters on cynicism and prayer. 

If your a cynical person you may think this is a shameless promotion.  Or, you could just be right...

Deception Pass--Oak Harbor

Great Words From A Monk

John of Landsburg wrote in his book A Letter from Jesus Christ some great words.  He imagined Jesus speaking to us saying:

I know those moods when you sit there utterly alone, pining, eaten up with unhappiness, ina  pure state of grief.  You don’t move towards me but desperately imagine that everything you have ever done has been utterly lost and forgotten.  This near-despair and self-pity are actually a form of pride.  What you think was a state of absolute security from which you’ve fallen was really trusting too much in your own strength and ability….what really ails you is that things simply haven’t happened as you expected and wanted.

In fact I don’t want you to rely on your own strength and abilities and plans, but to distrust them and to distrust yourself, and to trust me and no one and nothing else.  As long as you rely entirely on yourself, you are abound to come to grief.  You still have a most important lesson to learn:  your own strength will no more help you to stand upright than propping yourself on a broken reed.  You must not despair of me.  You may hope and trust in me absolutely.  My mercy is infinite. 

-Taken from Paul Miller’s A Praying Life

Welch and the Rest

1) Recently, the ye ol' Fresh Air interviewed the dignified Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings in light of their fantastic new record The Harrow and the Harvest.  You can listen to the interview here.

We didn't quite think ms. Gross was entirely on her game, but we can't say the same about GW & DR.  They played some songs in studio and blessed our little kitchen.  One of the things that was unfortunately not probed on the interview was DR's most tasteful guitar touches and how exactly he learned to play that way.  One thing I didn't know about the duo is that they have a Berkeley School of Music background.  Which explains their excellent technical prowess.  But man, where did Dave get his acoustic axe?  Who were his teachers, hero's, etc.  He is a gem.

At any rate, we are loving the new tunes.  Check em' out if you like old school folk duo, headed west country, or the county-line blues.  The album as they said is "ten kinds of sadness."  Which is ten times the goodness in your player.

2)  We are now on the final stretch of waiting for our new little girl to arrive.  The nesting has commenced and we have this cute little bassinet area ready to go.  We've got the diapers, the clothes, the changing table, the little booties and hats, etc.  There is nothing like anticipation of the good.  This one has been a blessing for us in that we both have had time to think about what's coming.  Isaiah came in the midst of every thing else coming, and we never had much down time beforehand to ponder the addition.  This time has been different.  Lots of thoughts towards her.  And actions to. Isaiah has already practiced putting her down for nap, singing the doxology rotation, putting on her blankets next to her animals, and telling her night night.  Soon enough she'll be with us friends, we can't wait.

Starting an Internship

Today I started my new pastoral internship at Grace Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon, WA.  I am going to be preaching through the book of Mark to begin.  I am excited what the Lord will do this next year in His church, His ministers, and in my family.  Thanks for all your support and prayers.

Uninteresting Post

I am not planning to make a series of uninteresting posts, but it may happen.  Here are some observations about our new surroundings in Mt. Vernon:

1) The guy who owns the hot dog & espresso joint down on freeway drive has a massive nitch.  I have never seen anything like it.  Suddenly, we have found ourselves craving hot dogs with espresso.

2) The trader joe's in Bellingham is way cheaper than the one in Omaha.  Our suspicions of the Omaha store have proven correct.  We chalk it up to shipping costs.  We are just glad we weren't being delusional.  We started shopping at the one in Omaha and said, "don't remember it being this expensive in California."  Alas, it is more California style prices up here.  And the floor space is massive.  We like this kind of TJ's.

3)  The Mt. Vernon food co-op not only attracts some of the most excellent, yet gaudy hippy buses imaginable (think of the bus on the movie into the wild, we wonder if the hippies are headed to Alaska), but they also carry Stone beer, something I couldn't find in Omaha.  By doing so I think it has made this one WSC alumnus happy, and perhaps the two others in Mt. Vernon.

4) Still wondering about the logic of having a tether-ball pole as the only recreational structure in our neighborhood park.  We love the benches and the picnic tables, but then there is the tether-ball.  I found myself hitting it back and forth while reading a section of the Cascadia weekly.  I felt like a much hipper Napolean Dynamite, yet perhaps just as weird.

5) Our neighborhood makes us feel like we are camping everyday.  It is quiet, surrounded by trees, and gets lots of fresh air off the nearby mountains.  On our evening walk we heard a wonderful soprano down the block practicing her arpeggios.  We'll take that over the Creighton Prep kids blasting the overrated deep cuts of Jay-Z.

That's all from Lake Wobegon, I mean, Mount Vernon.

New Home

 Here are a few shots we took around our new home.  We can see Mt. Baker from our backyard.  Yep, still a lot of snow up there.  The scenery is great up here.  All of these shots were taken from our property.

We Made It

After an epic 30hr. haul we are in the beautiful confines of the upper Northwest.  God has taken me to serve at Grace OPC in Mt. Vernon, Washington.

We move into our new place today. 

More from the mountains coming soon.