ἀλλάσσω

Just over 1 year ago I began to keep a journal.  I was driven to journaling by a girl.  Since November 20, 2008 (11-20-08, if you’re using OJD* format), I have scribbled down prayers, thoughts, songs, rants, prayers, poems, Greek forms of the definite article, prayers, and occasional notes on things.  Sometimes I write in my journal every day.  Other times it sits unopened between the stereo and the speaker, in a pile with rest of the books I don’t open enough.

Besides the catharsis of writing, what keeps me returning to my journal is reading.  To read entries from months ago is a beautiful experience.  My journal is a record of how I used to be, and how I’ve grown.  God’s grace.

I suppose this blog is similar, yet quite different.  While my journal is a record of who I’ve been, this blog is a record of who I’ve presented myself to be.  How embarrassing.  On several occasions, I’ve come very close to deleting this blog altogether.  But I continue to feel the urge to present myself through this unique medium.  And, as I read past entries, I can track the same development as with my journal.  I’ve grown.  And I’m growing.  And none of these posts exist apart from the others.

So I will continue blogging, and trying to avoid using phrases like, “my blog”, “I was blogging”, or “you know, I blogged about that recently”, in conversation (I’m still not entirely ready to be that guy).  And I will continue journaling.

*Official Journal of Dave

Last Saturday two of my best friends and I played a show at our favorite coffee shop.  We go by the name Autumn Caller.  It comes from one of our songs.  That night we released an EP of five songs (which you can hear if you click on the “Autumn Caller” on the right side of this page).  It was a good night.  I’m glad the CD is out of my hands and now stands as it is.  I am finally able to move on from those songs and develop my music more freely

Thanks, Brook, for taking these.

Last Saturday eight of us went to an orchard to pick apples.  The weather was beautiful.  Later we made baked apples, apple pie, and played Uno Attack.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons, along with winter, spring, and summer.

Micro Loans

This week at Grace College is the Conference on Missions.  During chapel this morning the speaker mentioned micro loans in passing.  Micro loans are basically loans that are too small for a large bank to bother with.  In the context in which they were mentioned this morning, an entrepreneur in an impoverished country may need a small amount of money to start or maintain a business.  Wealthy Americans like us have the capacity to supply these loans.  One website that helps to connect lender and borrower is

www.kiva.org

If these entrepreneurs receive the loans that they need, they can begin to make a living on their own, rather than relying on humanitarian handouts.  If they make a living on their own they can serve their neighbors and villages and regions and begin to lift themselves out of poverty.

I encourage you to explore this website and consider helping an entrepreneur to get his/her feet on the ground.  It’s a really great opportunity to treat others as you would like to be treated, and it is well within our means.

7-20-09

Time always marched on.  For countless generations the younger have gotten older.  Young life flourishes in folly and flame, then grows up, then gets old and steps aside for new young life to follow the same path.  Kids grow up.  They have kids.  Then those kids grow up.  It is relentless.  It is reliable.  Is has always been so.  Life starts.  It grows and swells.  It expands and deepens and loves and strives.  Until it reaches its climax.  Then it shrinks back until at last it dies.

What comfort is there for the heart?  In friends?  No.  They will fall away.  In family?  No.  They will grow old and grow up and depart. 

No.  All is fleeting and shallow without the founder of all things.  The Lord, the LORD alone will be my light.  He will never leave me nor forsake me.  In his hands are everlasting pleasures.  He nourishes my soul as water nourishes my dry, thirsty body.  His light is the one worth seeking.  And it shines through a thousand little places in life every day.  Through relationships.  Through conditions.  Life is speckled with his light shining through windows which I cannot number.

Look through the windows.  Do not look at the windows.

My last two weeks at a glance.

-Moving, meetings, vision statements, training

-Reading theology

-Drinking huge amounts of Yerba Mate.

-Frequently stealing borrowing my suitemate’s longboard skateboard.

-Episcopalian eucharist on Wednesday nights, Baptist service on Sunday mornings, Grace Brethren school.

-A fresh batch of new students.

-Much, much more.

It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but the experience of God’s presence.  That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think, the miracle we really get.

Frederick Buechner

Here is revelation bright as the evening star:  Jesus comes for sinners, for those as outcast as tax collectors and for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams.  He comes for corporate executives, street people, superstars, farmers, hookers, addicts, IRS agents, AIDS victims, and even used-car salesmen.

-Brennan Manning

Leadership Summit 2009

I have had the incredible opportunity to attend Willocreek’s Leadership Summit at my church at home.  Today was the first day.  There were so many great things said, some of which I hope to write more about in the future.  For now, however, I will just share some of the notes I jotted down in my journal.

Bill Hybels

-Are pastors to be businessmen?  I don’t know.  Money helps us minister to people.  But it’s shifty and dangerous.  How can you handle it?  How can you be concerned with the financial health of your church without making it your end game?

-”Be Christian about it.”

…

-Self-leadership.  I will be depleted.  I will get empty.  I cannot take on so much that I ignore the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit.  It is more precious than anything.  It’s my priority.  I must be replenished by the Holy Spirit.

Gary Hamel

-A church should:  Be a powerful magnet to unbelievers.  Be a nurturing incubator for believers.  Be a catalyst for spiritual growth.

-The surrounding culture is set up against “the church.”  But this great change opens great opportunity.  Cynicism opens the door for God to speak when people are doubted.  Thirst for authenticity opens the door for people to see Jesus, the most authentic person ever to live.

-”Church strategy must change to minister to the rapidly changing culture.”  I think the key to this is that our method is just that, a METHOD to carry the TIMELESS message of the gospel.  And we also can’t leave those who are older behind.  The message speaks louder than the method.

Tim Keller

-Too much to write down!!!