Thirsty

My YouTube debut!

This video is the intro to all of the camp videos this summer. Instead of Holy Hydrated at the end, it says "Quench Your Thirst."

Greg, Sharpie, and I really had fun making it, so I hope you enjoy.

Disturbing the Comfortable

It all started out innocently enough. After lunch one day, Jeremy and I went to Hage's to check out study books that we could possibly use in LIFEGroup next fall. We found one or two that intrigued us, but Jeremy found another book that seemed interesting: Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.

We paid for our books and went back home. The next time I saw Jeremy he told me "You have to read this book. It's great." As soon as he finished, I followed his recommendation and read through the book. On the back cover it says:

This book will comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

That last phrase was a pretty big understatement. Shane Claiborne is all about living as an "ordinary radical." He sums it up as living out your day to day life in a lifestyle of radical love. He does this in Philadelphia, PA where he lives in a community known as The Simple Way. Together, they meet each other's needs, take care of each other's financial situations, and serve God in the community. He tells stories of his early start in a "get saved every Sunday" youth group experience, his time spent in Calcutta with Mother Teresa, and his college years where he worked with the homeless in Philly. His entire life is devoted to actually living in a way that shows that he is serving and following Jesus. By taking care of the oppressed, hurting, and homeless, he is being Jesus in his community and loving his neighbor.

I was doing alright with the book until a few chapters in when Shane quotes Soren Kierkegaard in referring to how Christians shirk responsibility.

"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."

This part really got to me. It cut right to the core of why I do the things that I do. Too many times (even since reading the book) I find reasons not to get out there to love people and to serve them. I say that I'm not ready. I make up excuses about not being equipped. But the fact of the matter is that I know what I need to do. I need to love my neighbor. I need to take care of widows and orphans. I need to humble myself as a servant for the sake of following Christ.

I read the book about 2 1/2 months ago, but I still have a long way to go. My mindset has changed big time and my experiences in Chicago are a big influence on that as well. The Justice and Mercy series that we just wrapped up follows along these same lines, and they're all pointing me towards action. I need to keep praying so that I can see how God can use me best. But in the mean time, I need to be willing to love in whatever opportunities that arise. The one thing I do know is that I'll never be the same. It's impossible to walk away from reading this book not changed. I was comfortable, and it disturbed me.

I dare you to read it. Let it disturb you.

Haiku: Part Deux

Sifting through my old posts, I found this one.

It's been a while since I've tried my hand at Japanese poetry, but I'll give it a whirl.

Restarting my blog
Is a real difficult job
Will you comment please?

Thermometers rise
The air is feeling sticky
Summer is looming

"This is a riddle"
Stirs memories of campfires
Greg "The Tank" Lenger

The Office is funny
Michael, Jim, Dwight, and Stanley
Pitiful Toby

Are haikus enough
To get you to read again?
Is this all in vain?

Dunder Mifflin Meets Heroes

Funny video I found of two great shows merged together with hilarious results.

Alliteration: It's a funny thing

News - Herding humpbacks with hoses gives a spray of hope - sacbee.com

The story's not half as interesting as the title, but I still think it warrants a post.

Mute Math

Here's the video I promised from Mute Math. These guys are awesome live. Enjoy.

2006-2007 in Photos

To sum up my life from last summer until now, I'll post some pics.

I got a Dwight Bobblehead for Christmas. It came decapitated. I now have an intact one.

The "hurricane" that swept through camp last July placed a large tree within feet of my cabin.

I went to 3 Tigers Games last season and this season. The first time was with the Manns, the second time with Harriman, and the third time with some friends from work.
We lost the first game, but won the next two, meaning that I am no longer a jinx.
At the game I went to this April, Inge hit a walk-off home run right in front of us, and it landed us on TV. That game marked the first time in at least 12 years that the Tigers have beat the Twins with me in the stands. I guess that's a good sign.

My first ever Wings game this January also ended well. Besides the Wings defeating the Predators, our seats were located just a few rows in front of Steve Yzerman's box.

I'm still disappointed in the Wings ending the season at the hand of the Ducks, but there's always next year.

As I'm writing this, I realize I have too little text to keep up with the pictures, I'm posting, so consider this paragraph a filler.

The picture of Stevie Y. is a little blurry, but trust me, it's him. The girl in front of me was freaking out the whole game and would frequently stand up and turn around to try and get a better picture. A little bit of construction and the auto show in Detroit got me a little lost, but we still made it to our seats with plenty of time before the opening face-off.

This year has also been a really good one for concerts. Unity was in August and was kinda dull, but in September I saw a free Sanctus Real concert at Spring Arbor. It was an awesome show with great music. If you're not familiar with Sanctus Real, they're definitely worth your time. In November, I saw Switchfoot at Hope and they were also amazing, but I forgot my camera that night. In March, I went sans camera to the Skillet concert in GR and a Mute Math concert at the end of the month. Both shows were awesome, and I'll post a Mute Math video soon. Last weekend was Rock the Coast. Family Force 5 was crazy, and BarlowGirl was good, but it was pretty forgettable.

But the concert that tops them all was David Crowder* Band last Friday night in Kalamazoo. The environment was incredible, and worshipping with Crowder was phenomenal. I wish that kind of emotion and heart was present every time that we worshipped. Too often, I go into it with the wrong attitude, but I wonder how much of that attitude is instilled from the musicians...

These are just the high points of the year as far as I have pictures for. I've continued working with the middle schoolers at church, and I still love hanging out with them and investing in their lives. I made it a priority to keep reading for fun and growth since Christmas break, so I've filled a lot of time that way, too. I hope to get around to posting some good (but brief) reviews one of these days. I'll be dedicating my reading time at camp this summer to a new book called "No Perfect People Allowed." It has me intrigued so far by the little bit that I read at work (read: Hage's downtime).

Awesome New Switchfoot Video

Switchfoot, despite "selling out" in the eyes of some people, are still making great music. This song has a lot to say, and the video is hilarious.

Gearing Up

I've been thinking that it'd be a good thing to get this blog going again. All the steam that it had 2 years ago is gone, back when everyone had a blog, but I miss having a place to jot down my thoughts or share cool things that I've found.

I leave on Tuesday for Grace Adventures staff training. This will be summer #2 of working there as a counselor. I'm focusing on making sure that I don't let last summer affect my expectations for this year. I'm excited to get to know this year's staff.

I've got some vids and pics to share, so look for more posts soon.

Happy [Belated] New Year

We're really "busy" at work tonight, so I thought I'd update what appears to be a very low priority in life right now.

Like anything in life, to make something grow, you have to invest time and energy into it. I have neither when it comes to this blog.

School is up and running again. My classes are all in the mornings 4 days a week, so my free time is in more solid chunks of time. That's nice. I work better when I have a lot of time to do something at once than when I have a bunch of smaller chances.

Anyways, I met with Ben on Friday, and I will be working at camp this summer again. I'm pumped to see what God has in store up at Grace Adventures for 2007.

And in other equally exciting news, I'm going to my very first Red Wings game ever tomorrow night. I've wanted to go to one since I was 8 or 9, but now that they're not nearly as popular and sans Shanahan and Yzerman, I finally get to go. Can't wait.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I update.