Unexpected

Many strange and unexpected things have happened this week. A few include:

I saw the Pastors I work for, Nick Nye and Joe Byler perform at Columbus's hottest gay night club. It's a long story but at one point I ended up in the VIP room.

The Monday night bike ride stopped by Columbus's Buddhist temple. We frightened the Laotian monks, who in turn gave of a tour of the facility. Very hospitable.

Tragically I was at a murder scene before the cops arrived. A man was stabbed repeatedly and died later at the hospital. Two men across the street were laughing at him as he bled to death. They were both arrested. It grieves to see a human created in the image of God treated this way.

I also led my team to victory in a game of touch football, which as most of my friends know is atypical for me to excel at sports. Well because of my recovering ankle I had to be all-time quarterback, which means I was partly responsible for every score, even an interception returned for a TD.

Tim Strader or Tom Joad?

My boy Tim just pretty much threw down at a listening session regarding the USDA National Animal Identification System. Watch what he and Kentucky legend Wendell Berry had to say!

Keller on Material Salvation

"Christianity... is perhaps the most materialistic of the world's faiths. Jesus's miracles were not so much violations of the natural order, but a restoration of the natural order. God did not create a world with blindness, leprosy, hunger, and death in it. Jesus's miracles were signs that someday all these corruptions of his creation would be abolished. Christians therefore can talk of saving the soul and of building social systems that deliver safe streets and warm homes in the same sentence. With integrity."

-The Prodigal God (112)

Quote of the Day

"Eventually I reach a point at shows where I just get bored and wish I was playing... I mean I look at the band and I'm like 'why should they have all the fun?'"

- Jon Badgley, while at a show tonight  

Just when I thought I hated Jane Austen

First sentence:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains" 

This is already exponentially better than last time. 

Stop Motion

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Betraying a Limited Vocabulary

I recently was at an Urban Outfitters and found a trendy little vocabulary book, which was in the clearance section as I suppose being intellectual is once again moving out of popularity. Well, I opened to the "V" section and was disappointed to discover there was only one word on two pages I did not immediately recognize or even use regularly in conversation. As my friends with more well-endowed diction (such as Toto, Sonium, Darren, or Jon) will readily testify, my linguistic arsenal is fairly limited, yet I aced this simple test. So basically, I came to the conclusion that at some point elementary vocabulary was redefined as advanced.

The following Harold Best quote seems to be especially pertinent.

"Mass culture is a culture that has lost this kind of love and respect for its language. It is a culture marked by the demise of a reverence for words and for their careful placement within an idea and its articulation. This demise cannot be fully understood without the recognition that the loss of a truth center allows us to use words not only untruthfully but also with carelessness and little thought of accountability... No words are left to express magnificence without resorting to the same words with which we have described the commonplace...

To what extent do we Christians pledge ourselves to forsake verbal worldliness- taking language in vain- and discipline ourselves so thoroughly as to be able to go into every catechetical and creedal corner and ever societal setting to articulate, eloquently and precisely, what it means to explore the full counsel of God and articulate this to a culture that has lost itself in meaninglessness?"

- Unceasing Worship (192-194)

Cliffnotes

Northstar, Seagull Bags, Paradise Garage, Urban Outfitters, Luck Bros. Coffee Shop, and the North Market.

Posing with Drew and Paul for a Polaroid portrait- in uniform with bicycles.

Introducing Drew and Paul to the craziness of the Monday Night Ride, which featured the return of the police helicopter.

Calling 911 for the first time in my life when a drunk kid lost control of his bike and smashed his face.

Logging in over 40 miles in one day with the GNC.

Delicious send-off brunch at the ill-named German Village Coffee Shop.

The BQE

THE BQE- A Film By Sufjan Stevens from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Read this and get excited!

Mini-documentary on the 930

Sojourn Community Church from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

Some kids from Austin threw together this little documentary/video tour of The 930.  Great introduction to what we're all about at Sojourn and how we view our city and our facility.