What i’m told every time i log in:
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(My emphasis)
Update soon hopefully, re: the amazing Mars Hill Mens’ Retreat
So i’m alive and well in Seattle. I’ve begun work at Amazon….well, i’ve started showing up, haven’t really begun useful work just yet. Right now i’m sitting in the lobby of one of Amazon’s buildings which is across the street from my apartment complex. That is not an exaggeration at all. I live above a well known asian food market in the middle of the international district, and i work in a mad scientist castle on a hill overlooking the city. I’m up on the 7th floor with no door (except my desk), but i do have a window with a fantastic view of the city.
I’m starting to get involved at Mars Hill Church here in Seattle. They feel a lot like Stone, except they’re coming up on 8 years, and we’re coming up on 3. Today i went out to one of their membership classes. Their class is a ten week affair. Connections on sterroids. The class was on stewardship, and everything the pastor said was solid. I’m going to have to give the nod to Kyle McDaniel in terms of exhortation to Christian living in the realm of finances, though. Systematic Theology is required reading for their elders. There is much wisdom and insight to be gained here, since they have members who have recent memories of the growing pains of going from a church plant to a church, and the church itself is already in the process of planting others. I’m going to be looking into joining a community group soon (most of them are on Tuesdays, so i’ve missed it for this week)
One thing Mars Hill does that i think is awesome is they don’t pass a plate, they’ve just got receptacles for donations and info cards at the exits to the church. I don’t know if that would work at Stone, but the reasons they cited definitely apply to Stone too: with a large proportion of non-Christians and skeptical Christians it’s most important that the church bring those people to relationship with Christ that then naturally encourages giving than to pass the plate.
I’m stoked about this church (if i didn’t get that across already). The membership class had 200-300 people in it (they do it twice a year) which is almost the Stone’s entire membership. They’ve got 4 services, Stone is looking at switching to 2.
My apartment is ridiculously awesome. My job is ridiculously awesome. My temprary church is ridiculously awesome. But still i miss Austin, TX. So to anybody out there lucky enough to be where its warm (todays high was an inadequate 80 degrees), i miss y’all.
So i decided not to stay in El Paso.
Instead i drove straight through. Ended up being a 30 hour trip from Austin (departure 11:30a CST) to Sacramento (arrival 3:00p PST, 5:00p CST). Yeah. That was probably a bad idea. But i got to surprise my mom, a lot. Which reminded me of the last time i showed up early in December of 2004, though i showed up 3 days early that time. I wen back to re-read the post…..i’ve changed a lot since then.
Enough of that…
So I drove through New Mexico between 10pm and 1am CST, could have been done faster but there were two stretches where i could only drive 35 mph.
I made it past Tuscon without too much trouble. About 30(?) miles outside of Phoenix i saw a sign that said Phoenix bypass road. I should have thought about the fact that at like 5am CST (3am Arizona time) there’s no traffic in the city, but like a fool i decided i’d take the bypass since i could probably keep going 75 the whole way instead o slowing down to 65 through the city. 50 miles down a completely dark road i was scared that i wasn’t going to see I-10 again, and suddenly i found myself faced with the choice between continuing down a road that kept telling me how i was getting closer to San Diego or turn around and give up all the west progress i made for fear that i was drifting further south. There in the dark i decided to seek assurance in God, and that was hard. The worst thing that could have happened to me on that road really wasn’t that bad, I had cell phone reception so anything that could have happened that left me with the ability to talk and dial was utterly solvable. But there in the dark with no signs saying “10″ on them i was freaking out, and prayer was hard, because i could only focus on the fear. Finally, i saw a sign that said some freeway would connect to I-10 in 6 miles. I don’t know if that was answered prayer or just more emphasis as to how difficult i find surrender.
So i knew i had been driving a long time when leaving LA, i saw a sign that said Sacramento 295 miles and thought “only 4 more hours of driving”. People who live in Houston or Dallas, you have NO SYMPATHY. I practically thought i was home already when i had 4 hours left.
When i arrived, i jumped onto Jesuit’s campus and rushed to where my mom’s class was hoping she was still there, she wasn’t. Then i headed over to her office, not there. Last, i went out the back exit to the library towards the tech office where she might be. Students aren’t supposed to go out that way, my mom was right there talking opn the cell phone and turned towards the noise to yell at whatever non-faculty member was coming out the door. Then she realized it was me and screamed so loud that George (my boss for the last two summers) came out of his office to see what was wrong. It was all worth it.
So i didn’t get to leave Austin until like 11:30. i made it to El Paso at 9 o’clock Austin time so not too bad. Going the speed limit saved me two speeding tickets.
My iPod definitely broke yesterday, so i’m driving with only the radio. There’s nothing quite so comforting as a radio station fading out and pressing seek, only to have the radio wrap all the way around.
It was good though cuz i got some good prayer time and came to some realizations about the relationship between serving and leading and how i’ve had it backwards. Definitely have to lead by serving, not serve by leading.
Apparently, i had my birthday on Wednesday. 2 decades down. i didn’t realize it until i saw it on the computer lab clock cuz i was so busy working on my CS 352 project. There were complications in MIS 304, but they got solve, barely, by a point. Accounting ended well. I missed by 10 percent in stats. The marketing final was open room. ‘Nuff said.