Fireworks

Every year they hold this 4 week long fireworks competition here in Vancouver. My wife and I are here with 400000 others for the grand finale. Except for all the people around us smoking pot it should be a good night. The real fun though awaits us as we try and leave and deal with the traffic with the 400000 others. All for Naomi's birthday.Tomorrow she turns 30.

10:28 on a Friday night.

And I'm at home. Getting ready for a long weekend that contains my wife Naomi's big 3-0 birthday. It has been a very busy couple of weeks for me that seem to be packed with so much. We're in this season at church of fasting and humbling ourselves. With that I've given up a few things. Those few things have become even fewer things over the last week though. Kind of depressed about that. It would have been nice to have maintained the drive till the end. Maybe I'll buck up and press in for the last 5 days. No condemnation though.

I've been getting a ton out of the word lately. It's nuts how there are times when revelation is just dripping off the pages, and others when it's all I can do to just keep from dozing off. I'm going through Romans via the extremely criticized New Living Translation but I love it. So readable and so good. We're also smack dab in the middle of 2 Chronicles. Just talked about King Asa. He was doing so well and just didn't finish well. Makes me think. God did amazing things in the first part of his reign, yet toward the end he started to trust in his gold and began to take things into his own hands. Even though he wiped Judah free of idolatry he was still prideful end the end. The worst idol of all.

I pray I never forget the good things the Lord has done for me. My miracles. The times when he crushes my enemies. When He restores me from my wicked sinfulness. I've had a few lost months to flesh and pain and I never want to go back there.

So much more to live for.

Tired.

So much stuff going inside my head. I have a huge thing at work (that I know I've been repeating myself about a lot) in a week. My self esteem, career, and sanity all lie in the balance of my passing or failing a big survey. The company I work for has international accreditation with this company. They come just once every three years to survey and ours is due on the 11th. There is so much to be done in anticipation of it. Kind of a long story why. I've been trying my best to learn what needs to be done as well and the language and logic that go with this company. I'm not making sense, but hopefully I will in a few weeks. Oh and my wife's 30 birthday is this Sunday! No pressure!

So the lack of postings can be attributed to this. Maybe some of the other team members can pick up the slack! (Cause they sure aren't posting on their blogs much! ;)

Don't waste your life.

A theme I've been picking up on lately from reading Roy, Steve and others blogs is about making something with this gospel we have heard. It seems the motivation and inspiration comes from many different movements and speakers. I think every one can appreciate what Dr. Piper has to say below. (Except for maybe a few of the free will types out there!)

I love technology

Wow. It's been very cool over the last week as my dad and I have made some technological upgrades (that are pretty inexpensive actually) and we can now chat (seeing and hearing) one another over the internet. It's lame we're so far away from each other so this really is a huge blessing. Anyone else out there want to connect?!

Jott - So I can work 27 hours a day.

So I was thinking on the way home from work how great it would be in this crazy work season if I could somehow keep working in my car on my way home. When I got home I went online and signed up for the free service from Jott. Basically it takes voice mail and transfers it into text. I call a local number, leave a message and it shows up in my inbox. I left three, complex messages tonight and within 5 minutes they were in my inbox without any spelling errors. Get this, here is the kicker, the calls are sent to India where a person listens to my call and then transcribes it and emails it back to me. For free. Looks like I just outsourced me some secretarial work!

Our friends are in town.

Ben, Rachel and baby Titus. Here's to good friends, tonight is kind of special.

Flagging in church.

Kind of a cool moment that I can't quite capture with my camera phone.

Wolves

Inexplicably there is a wolf habitat thingy at the bottom of the mountain we noticed on the gondola ride down. These wolves don't look vicious though. Just retired.

The tram.

They built this tram to take us down the mountain. God bless em'.

Made it to the top!

Steve Maines, Phil Taylor, Jason Hughlett. Defeated Grouse Mountain in one hour twenty minutes. Along side a 79 year old guy, a 12 year old kid with a mickey mouse back pack and a thousand other nutso people. My fave other climber was a lady in designer jeans and flip flops.

Blogging from the Grouse Grind!

There is this mountain that is like 3000 feet to the top. You can scale it up this gnarly steep, trail to the top called the Grouse Grind. We are a 1/4 way up and I am already spent. But there is a lady in a dress and fancy shoes doing it so I guess I can't complain. See you at the top!

This is so funny. And so good. And so right on.

I'm breaking my internet exile again but this is to good to pass on sharing.
Found it here

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Up at midnight.

I never have insomnia. I do tonight. I have a huge, huge, huge, career defining review happening in a month, so I was sitting in bed thinking of the millions of things I need to prepare for. I actually went to bed at 9;30 tonight trying to get a good night sleep!

I have actually not been anywhere near the TV, internet (Except posting from my phone) or talk radio in my car in three days (Which is a long time for me) but tonight, here I am. Lame. Oh well, back to my "season of simplicity and humility" tomorrow.

Well, I need to get to work by 6 am to get cracking on this list in my head so I should try and force myself to sleep. We'll see how that goes!

The long sun.

JesusFest 2008

So this last weekend we had an outdoor event at the church called "JesusFest, West Coast". It was amazing, wonderful, hot, terrific... My friends Ed and Wendy and their ministry Worship Invasion made it happen. There were two great worship teams and Nolan Clark spoke. Nolan is amazing. I know I can get on here and mention someone and people who don't know just roll their eyes, but take my word for it. I wish I had sermon audio to post. He preached two great messages that inspired and challenged me deeply. Nolan has a church over in Kamloops, BC called "The Feast" that he pastors along with his wife Heather. Heather is a worship leader that God was using when Lakeland took off. Anyway, I took some pictures that I'm going to post soon. But there is some video that someone took that is cool. Check it out here.

Church outside today.

A beautiful day today. We're all outside singing, preaching, getting burnt. We're gonna have a picnic in a bit. We should do this every Sunday.

Punched in the face...

Well actually elbowed. I have a big mouse under my left eye tonight. I got it from my brazilian jiu-jitsu/MMA class that I've been taking for the last three months. I'm kind of bummed though cause with having to pay for childcare over the summer I can't afford to keep taking classes till the fall. Stinking gas prices! Oh well, I know that God is calling me into a time of consecration for a time so maybe the timing is good. It'll give me the chance to heal up a bit. I've been non-stop sore and achy since I started.

Well that is pleasant.

So today's bible verse over there on the right caught my attention. I quietly examined my heart for a few seconds after reading it.

Jacob's Dream by Jason Upton

Jacob really longed to be a hero
All I really wanted was a friend
I'm the way, the life, the truth
So tell Me Jacob when will the lying end?
And does the striving make you strong?
Because when I came to love on you
You fought me till the dawn

Finally Jacob's lying down
And while he sleeps I will dream
Of a generation not known for their crowns,
Or success, but a King...
Who was not so much as interested in crowds, or
Pleasing men, but knowing Me

I have given Jacob's generation the key of David, intimacy
To open up the doorway to the nations, and release
Revelation, of intimacy, with me

Jacob had a dream for all the ages
Jacob had a drive to build a nation
But the fighting is in vain
If your only aim is to build your own great name

Because My dream's not what you do
Jacob will you dream for me
The way that I have dreamed for you