Sunday, January 10, 2010
Schedule from Hell
Famous last words. Let us begin.
The Situation:
Adam is an overweight super senior at OCU, employed by Newchurch as a part/full time youth pastor.
The Problem:
There are only 24 hours in a day.
The Result:
I have agreed to wake up MWF at 5:40am to go work out with Matt Floyd (www.prodigysportsokc.com) until 7:30. This takes care of the overweight/outta shape part. For those of you who don't know I'm down 30 lbs! Woo! I also am wanting to get out of school as fast as possible, therefore I have to take a few extra classes this semester to graduate in May. When I say I'm taking a few extra, I mean 6 extra hours on top of the 15 I'm already taking. Am I insane? No, I am desperate to get the heck out of that place! Then finally I am working every hour I can get in at the church from the hours of 9-5. Then I go home and do homework/study until 10:30 when I go to bed.
Let's do this.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Oh, the Pain Meds
I won't bore you with that. It can be summed in one statement: The only difference between getting wisdom teeth surgery and getting hit in the face with a 2x4 is that you pay someone to cause you the pain.
Anyway, I have been watching Connor Hamby (who has an excellent blog entry right now, check it out: connorham.wordpress.com), my roomie, play Nazi Zombies on WAW and waiting for the meds to take their desired effect. I thought to myself, "this is a prime opportunity to blog your life since school has started."
So here I am, entertained by the mutilation of zombies, hopped up on pain killers, and enjoying the new company of my 17" MacBook Pro (Yes, it is portable computing at it's finest) spilling my guts to the world... or whoever reads. Maybe two. One?
I have found myself in a slight weekly routine. I wanted to share it with you guys in case you need to find me in case of emergency or random boredom. Come hang with me. It will be fun.
Mondays:
10am-2pm Class @ OCU
2pm-8pm Newchurch Doin' Werk
8pm Hangin' at the NEW CRIB!
Yeah, so Mondays aren't that interesting... Maybe not Mondays. You know what? In fact, lets just go with the stuff that is actually entertaining.
Wednesdays:
6pm-8pm The WAVE @ Newchurch Youth
9pm McNellies $3 Burger Night
...Alright. Maybe I don't do very much. But my life is satisfying. Yes it is.
Pain meds just showed up!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Yeah, it's been a while...
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Rocker
Tonight I got to go the FREE sneak preview of Peter Catteneo's "The Rocker" starring Rainn Wilson and Christina Applegate.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Day After
Monday, March 10, 2008
Since you've been gone...
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Familiarity of Jonah
A call has come from the horizons
Clear as a shout in my ear
Though, still, I turn my face
Still I run in fear
This is a short poem that I wrote at a time in my life about a month ago. I was presented with a crossroads in the direction of my life as a minister. I was given the opportunity to either stay at the church I was at or take a job at the church I grew up in. I feel such a relationship to Jonah because our situations are so similar. The words of the short story are jumping off the page at me. I knew from the instant the pastor at my home church asked me to come back what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to go back, but I was comfortable where I was. I was finally getting my ministry off the ground, meeting some new friends, and getting my feet wet in different areas. Needless to say, I fled to Tarshish.
I spent the next three weeks in a wrestling match with God on what he wanted me to do. I pretty much read through Psalms and Proverbs in three weeks trying to find a cop out, or as we Christians call it a “verse out,” of the direction God had shown my heart. This is basically what Jonah did, except he literally got on a boat and fled the Lord, as if he didn’t know what was going on. A side note: I love it how people think they can pull a fast one on God, including myself. Anyway, I found myself in the situation that Jonah was. I was hiding out in a boat, trying to sleep off my decision.
Of course we all know what happens next in the story. Jonah gets thrown off the ship. I walked into the office, sat my bag down, and my pastor walked out of his office and said, “Hey, let’s go for a ride.” He knew that I had to run to Radio Shack to get some connectors for the sound equipment. We were riding in the car talking about my situation and he said to me, “You need to make a decision by the end of today.” Splash, I was thrown into the water. I proceeded to tell him what God had been showing me and what the direction God wanted me to go in. He told me that all I had told him sounded like going back to my home church was I was supposed to do. I was still skeptical though. I still hadn’t told him that I was leaving for sure. I still had not made my choice. God was going to make it for me.
I did not get swallowed by a huge fish, but I did have to go up on the roof and replace a massive amount of lights that had either blown up, out, or off of the roof. In the silence, with only the sound of cars and wind, and the sun on my back I found myself praying to God, asking why and what to do. This point of the story directly relates back to Jonah where he was inside the fish, and he prayed to God, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry” (Jonah 2:2). I completed all the lights on the roof, and stood up to head back down. On my walk back I caught my brand new shoes on the metal sheeting and they ripped. That was the catalyst that sent me into a breakdown. On that roof I felt like Jonah when he said, “I have been banished from your sight” (2:4). I was literally jumping around on the roof yelling with tears in my eyes, crying out to God for help. When I was climbing down from the roof, I knew what God wanted me to do, and I had known the entire time exactly what it was: go to Nineveh.
When I got down off the roof I knew what I was supposed to do. I went to my pastor and told him that God was leading me to leave. He just looked at me and said okay. I know he was happy for me because I was following God’s direction in my life. To this day, knowing that my pastor has the gift of discernment, I think he knew all along what I was supposed to do. He just wanted me to make the decision for myself. This part of the story seems kind of out of place and obviously important. I relate this to Jonah getting vomited up on the beach by the whale after he knew what he was supposed to do.
So I went to Nineveh, slightly anxious and uncertain what was going to happen. But I just held God’s hand and walked behind him. And I still am uncertain, and do not know what’s really going on or why I’m here, but I am trusting God. You're probably wondering about the end of the book of Jonah where he is angry with God for not destroying Nineveh. I'm still working through that... It's hard to leave your comfort zone (ironic considering I'm going to my home church) when things aren't working the way you had thought. I wouldn't trade my experience at the church I left for anything. I learned more there in 6 months than I did in 3 years worth of internships other places. I'll miss it, but with God's help I am facing the future.