Tribute

I wrote the greatest blog post in the history of the world last week. I wrote it over the course of a few days, and I thought “I should copy and paste this because internet explorer is super lame, and I’ll loose all this incredible blogging insight after a freeze followed by an error, explore must close.” Sure enough, I lost everything after saying several anathemas to Internet Explorer.
I do remember a line about the electricity here being as intermittent as my good intentions, and something about love being more precious than equity… but that’s about it. But this post isn’t the best blog post in the world, this is just a tribute.
Thanks to the good folks at mars hill, I’ve been reading a lot of George MacDonald lately. I love this guy. And man his he Scottish, which I love as much as I love his insight into life and faith and stuff. So then my wife’s copy of “velvet elvis” turned up on the dining room table last week, as I lost my blog post. I should also mention that I’ve been reading Michael Crichton (timeline) as well, just so you know: Also, I like Crichton better than Grisham. I’m not a guy who likes court room dramas, and law. If I ever get the chance to do a feature film, it won’t be a court room drama. Although, the first feature length screenplay I ever wrote centers around a traffic violation being settled in court (I know, it has oscar written all over it). I’ve been to traffic court many times, lots of times Officer Durbins from Gresham Oregon has sent me there… It could be officer Derbins, or Durbens. I no longer have my tickets so I don’t know how to spell his name In fact, I remember one time I was supposed to go camping with Andy Whipps and Matt Guerino, and I forgot I had a court date that prevented our timely departure. They both ended up coming to traffic court with me, watching Derbins, give out yet another successful traffic fine to yours truly. I’ve never won against that guy.
So whenever people send me books, like Jason from Mars, I start thinking about those people, and I start wondering what they’re doing… occasionally I facebook them, check out there new picks etc, and then I think how greatful I am that he would send a book out here to me, and of course I then start thinking about Greg from Mars... and that’s usually my process. Then that get’s me wondering why I haven’t read “velvet elvis.” I met two other people from mars, Don Golden, and Chris Stark, again the name spellings could be wrong, but these guys never gave me a single traffic violation, and I love ‘em for it. I had some good discussions with Don, and with Chris, and I remember thinking how, Mars people reminded me of each other, and myself… like I could pick them out of a crowd or something; or a few may show up at my next family reunion... So that got me thinking that I should read “velvet elvis” after all, why would it just show up like that, after I’ve had mars hill on the brain, plus I remember Chris saying to me that it was an important read as a part of his journey, and I’m a guy that’s all about journey… and Trina really liked it. Plus, Rob points out in this book that you should be critical and wrestle with it etc, and I’m super critical, and I like criticizing movies and books and bible commentaries, positively and negatively, and I don’t like that I like criticizing, so an invitation to criticize is like a delicious meal for me.
I realized that I never really studied too much about rabbinical tradition. It seems like Rob is really into this sort of study as a means to understanding scripture. Which makes a lot of sense. I thought Rob put himself out there. It was a bold move, and I liked his style. The concept of binding and loosing things was new to me. It was a good concept to think about. I did love the concept of pastor/teachers being masters of the obvious, and pointing out the obvious. I found that to be true to my experience… His passion and honesty was refreshing, as well as his sense of humor. I like to think about Rob as a big fan of Punk touring around with his punk band, it seems we’ve got similar music tastes. It was also great to see Trina’s notes, the things she liked, the sentences she underlined. Looks like she used it to teach quite a few things, and I know that Nooma is no stranger to the High School/Junior High machine at G-shep. In about two months we’ll be receiving two teams from Mars, and I’m looking forward to having them. Greg, see if you can make it back on one of those teams, I mean it, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

Some things I’ve enjoyed lately:

Dan Franklin's blog… I just plain love reading his blog... it's good stuff
Trina’s blog… I love reading her blog… she’s a great writer.
Burundian smiles… warmer than proper tea on a cold rainy day.
Rainy Season… you have to experience it for yourself.
East African Scenics…I don’t need to expand on this.
The living colors of Afrique… the colors are more alive then most people I know.
Beach volleyball… and bad mitton
Our new little church… as refreshing as cold water on a hot day.
Our Burundian friends and family… we’ll keep growing deeper roots.
Trinabelle… she’s Trinabelle, everybody enjoys the belle.