So Im ready for fall. Im coming to the realization that I might be a polar bear or something cold natured. But fall will be a different one this year for me. Every fall Ive been somewhere where you experience all four seasons pretty distinctly, but Im not sure that will be the case here with the winter season. Im going to miss Knoxville's fall to be honest, not so much because its beautiful there, and it is, but I think more because of the things I associate with fall now are downtown Knoxville, disc golf with Bill, Worlds Fair Park, starbucks with friends, UT football games, dates to McKays (which I miss greatly) and just about anything else Knoxville.

But Im looking forward to this new transition of our life. Court and I can experience fall in a new light, from a new spectrum.

So I was just sitting around last night with Court and we were talking and I began to think about Crossings, which is a church plant we used to help out with in Knoxville. I miss that family but I got to thinking about the people that I missed there and I thought of what Rich Mullins said, "When I go to church,. . .I involve myself in something that identifies me with Augustine, that identifies me with Christ, that identifies me with nearly 2000 years of people who have come together once a week and said, 'Lets go to the Lord's table and enjoy the feast that He has prepared for us."

I get to worship every week with Crossings, not physically there, but we still worship the same God, so in that light, I do worship with you guys. When we take communion, when we sing praises, when we heard the Word being preached, we involve ourselves in something bigger than ourselves, we involve ourselves in bigger purposes, together, something that happened long before we were here and will continue to happen long after we're gone, the worship, purpose and praise of God. We together get to go to the "Lord's table and enjoy the feast that He has prepared." Wherever we are, we do that and it identifies with each other, for bigger purposes.

Its crazy when you step back and see the bigger picture and see that as C.S. Lewis said, "The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose."

We as human beings are to draw man into Christ.

I’m amazed by life
And it’s amazed by me
We’re a strange old pair- me and eternity
It don’t make good sense
It ain’t easy to see
But I’m amazed by life
And it’s amazed by me

It’s a long hard road
With a good, good end
And if I keep on walking on past the crooked bend
I will meet my Maker
I will meet my Friend
It’s a long hard road
With a good, good end

(disclaimer - this post is more directed to myself than anyone)

So I was reading a friend's blog and he mentions two words that are very popular right now among the young church movement, attractional and missional. I like what he says about how he believes that we place to much value on these two words. I fear that these two words and in particular, missional since its kind of the "new" movement of church or at least its the one thats being talked about a lot right now, is going to be just another trend, something people do that is simply just "different" for being different's sake and not for believing its truly transforming. And I'll be the first to admit that Ive been caught up in the phrase game and saying the word missional cause it sounds cool and because its kind of "cutting edge" or whatever you want to call it. However I fear that thats all these words meant to me and thats all these words mean to many among our generation, is that its the next "cool" thing to say or do among church.

I was at a little get together last night for a group of people that just got back from Mexico City to help out the local churches. And as a gentleman was speaking about the trip, he said that as physically uncomfortable as it was, the spiritual rewards far out-weighed that and that he was ready to go back tomorrow.

Now I dont have a problem with him or anyone for that matter saying that and in fact Im probably guilty of saying the same thing many times, but the thing that gets me is that he and myself and whoever else says it usually, wont go back to being in that "uncomfortable" state of mind and physical discomfort for at least another year or so or whenever the next "mission trip" is and will come back and say the say things again, that "Im ready to go back tomorrow." If we truly mean that we'd go back tomorrow, then why are we waiting around chasing after this "American Dream" and going on these trips once a year and challenging ourselves once a year and getting out of our comfort zone once a year. I dont believe we need to go out of the county for this physical discomfort and spiritual rewarding feeling, just look around our communities, why do we feel like we have to go out of the country for this feeling?

Getting to my point about this blog is that in both of these little paragraphs, I believe the same thing is happening, we're just simply talking about these things, simply talking about doing these things. We entertain the thought of doing these things but we never take it serious enough to actually implement these ideas into our lifestyle. We (including myself) make up all kinds of excuses of how they dont fit in with our current lifestyle or way of living. Well maybe its time for you and myself especially to look into changing our lifestyle and way of living so the things that really matter to Jesus start to matter to us as well. That we stop trying to fit Jesus into our way of living to make us feel safe and warm inside, but that we start loving people unconditionally and start giving more, not necessarily of money, but maybe more of our time and energy to things that really matter.

I see people(including myself) who talk about change and want change and want to help and make a difference and I see people talking about being missional and talk about making sacrifices, but I rarely see people who actually do these things.

. . .Green. . .

So it has become almost a nightly thing for me to lay in bed and read at night before I go to bed. Its a good time for me to do that, it seems to be hard for me to find time to really sit down and just read, Ive wanted to find time, and this seems to be best, when Court is just about to fall asleep or already asleep and the rest of the world around me seems to be sleeping except for the candle I usually have lit by the bed. So as I was reading the other night, I asked Court if she wanted to start a spiritual discipline with me and try to memorize scripture together. But I dont want this to just be, the kind where you just memorize it for memorizing sake, I really want to try to take it to heart what we try to memorize and to allow it to effect our daily lives and lifestyle.

So we decided to try to memorzie different sections of the book of Proverbs. We're starting off with Proverbs 1:7-18 and Im memorizing from The Message translation and all week the very last verse has been stuck in my mind. The Message translates it as "When you grab all you can get, thats what happens: the more you get, the less you are." All week Ive been thinking about how much my life revolves around trying to grab all I can get. I mean isnt that the American dream?

Ive also been listening to a series of sermons from Mars Hill Bible Church, which is titles God is Green and its talking about how we are to take care of the earth and all kinds of examples of how we can do that and Ive been convicted by the talks, but I also to some extent feel like, well is it really going to make a difference if its just me that trys to make a difference in caring for our earth? I know I know I shouldnt think that way but I do. Do you ever feel like your the only one around you that actually cares about downsizing the things in your life and your lifestyle? Or that you dont even know where to begin to downsize your life or lifestyle cause all you've been trying to do is "grab all you can get"?

Well I realize that downsizing and taking care of the earth is a journey as well, that its not something that is just going to happen over night, but sometimes I just look around and feel so overwhelmed that I dont know where to begin or if its maybe too late even sometimes.

But I feel like Im starting to care enough, or at least starting to really feel convicted of how Im living and how much stuff I just try to grab to make me look cooler or better or smarter or whatever feeling or adjective you want to insert. Tonight Court and I baught energy saving light bulbs, hopefully the first step to many new ways of living in trying to do our part. I heard that by buying energy saving bulbs, that the energy that you are saving is like taking somewhere around 100 cars off the road, I believe thats what I heard, whatever it is it saves a ton of energy just by buying little energy saving light bulbs. So if you have anymore new ideas or suggestions of how we can take care of the earth better let us know.

And if your at all interested in memorizing scripture with us, we're on Proverbs 1:7-18 this week, and I can update each week. I know most of you that read this and we miss you guys and hopefully we'll see you guys very soon.

"When you grab all you can get, thats what happens: the more you get, the less you are"

Well the weekend was great. Court and I camped, with Jake and had great late night talks and caught up with Jake. It was something that was much needed and it was a great get away. I loved being in the mountains and being in a place where you can get away from everything and really honestly feel like you can be who you are. We went out and got coffee in an awesome coffee shop and if I lived there Id probably spend most of my time there. We had great talks about church and possibly planting one, Im not sure I like that term, but it will work. Ive been wrestling with the idea of community and "church planting." I've had a few talks with some close friends about the possibility about it and so its been on the brain lately.

This post is really meaningless, sorry for that. Just an update on what Ive been doing. Hopefully there will be a more thoughtful and provoking blog to come.

Camping

Well my next post will have to wait a bit. . because. . .Court and I are going camping this weekend with one of our best friends. . Jacob. . .I cant wait. Its going to be great to see Jake again, to camp and maybe do some swimming in a lake or jumping off water falls or something. . .I love being outdoors and it cant get much better with your wife and and of your best friends. . .this weekends is much needed.

ps. . .I might look into getting my other tattoo, we'll see. :)