My Worship Revolution

Check out this video of Stephen Colbert explaining the new AT&T name change of Cingular wireless and the amazing success of the U.S. anti-trust efforts:

(HT: CreativeProcrastination)

That’s right my friends, the long awaited return of Jack Bauer from the torturous land of China.  So yes, the greatest show ever to be shown on television has returned for another season.  I know this technically happened on Sunday, but several of us have church Sunday night.  So, we DVR’d Sundays 2 hours and tonight 11 of us (pictured above) gathered for a 4 hour season premier extravaganza at Rick‘s house.

This was a gathering for the 24 hardcore faithfuls and that’s it!  We barbecued, ate together, and then watched some good ole fashioned butt-kicking by my main man Mr. Bauer.  i think this is definitely what Paul had in mind when he said do not forsake the gathering of the saints.  This is true Christian fellowship.

***24 Spoiler Alert***
Anyway, good times.  Here’s a not so candid re-enactment of our utter shock and bubbling over of emotions when Jack offed his and our good friend Curtis:

RIP Curtis.  As usual, it was for the greater good.  So even though my Chargers may have choked hard this weekend, I can at least be rest assured that Jack won’t let me down, and now my Monday nights can once again be filled with action, suspense, and terrorist whoopin.  Life is good again.  And i can watch it live now cause I’m done with school!

So this past Thursday, January 11th was Rachel’s 25th birthday.  I was trying to think of a fun place to go for the day and started to realize how limited my options are now with a baby.

Nonetheless, it was a great day to take off of work and just spend hangin together as a family.  We had breakfast together, went to Balboa Island, had some dinner, and caught a movie.  It really was just great to be together.  And we caught it all on tape, too.  Check it out here if you wanna:

I am so thankful for my wife.  Without her I’d pretty much be screwed.  She helps me be at least kinda organized.  She chills me out a bit.  She makes me look good.  She really holds our house and our family together.  Sometimes I wake up, look at her, and realize I am so lucky that she fell in love with me for some reason.  Your amazing honey!   Happy Birthday (again…a few days later)!!

Yup…my good friend Chris has joined the married club.  You know, the ask permission before you go out club.  We had an absolute blast at his wedding last week.  I won’t bother with pics…instead I’ll just send you here to see some.

The wedding was beautiful and it was lots of fun dancin with all our friends at the reception.  Until…the following song came on.  This is one of the few songs that you WILL NOT catch me on the dance floor for.  Check it out:

Haha!!  So I was trying to decide what I thought about the whole iPhone thing when I read this hilarious post by Anne Jackson.  Go read it.  It is well worth reading and so true (sorry friends who fall into the category she wrote about…which I guess kinda includes me now.)

So since it includes me now, I guess I might as well finish with my thoughts.  Yeah, it looks really cool and all, and I haven’t checked it out extensively, and I really am a recently converted Mac fan, but I have a few concerns:

• Touch screen – cool.  But I’ve seen how scratched up and jacked up some of the iPod touch screens have gotten.  Will that happen with this too?
• Also, a friend pointed out that it may seem really cool till the first time you hold it up to your dome only to pull it away to find it all greasy and oily.  Then you try to wipe it off and it just gets smudged and smeared.
• It’s only available with Cingular, no doubt the crappiest cell service on the planet.  Cingular definitely got the better deal in that partnership.
• And of course, for the amount I’d have to pay for the phone I could get like 2 iPods, a really nice snowboard with maybe enough left over for a day or two of lift passes, about 60 lunches with friends (30 if i want to be nice and buy), or half a tank of gas for my truck I haven’t sold yet (Just kidding – the mileage really isn’t that bad and you or your friend or your brother-in-law’s third cousin really want to buy my truck).

Or based on that last point, maybe deep down I’m just ridiculously jealous that I won’t be able to have one (of course I don’t want one if I have to go back to Cingular.)  Of course, if I ever get one I’ll just recant all of that, or just delete the post.  POOF – evidence gone.

…like crap.

So it’s finally 2007.  (Yeah…like 5 days ago, I know!)  I’m definitely ready for a new year.  A chance to start fresh I guess.  It seems like God is all about new beginnings and fresh starts.  I heard a great podcast today with Chris Tomlin talking about his album "See The Morning" and how God has something special about the morning throughout scripture…the dawn of a new day, the light piercing through the darkness.

Now I’ve never been a fan of New Years Resolutions.  They’re just ridiculous.  But this year, I did decide that it would be a good time to sit down with my wife and really assess where we’re at and put some new goals in place for the next year and beyond.  When we first got married we set some goals.  We did a sort of "playoff system" with our goals, picking a couple spiritual, physical, financial, educational, etc. and pitting them against each other till we had the top couple goals.  Our #1 goal as a couple was for me to get my Bachelors.  I completed my majors work last month and with a couple of random G.E.’s I’ll have the degree in May, so that one can finally be checked off.

So this time, I found this great message by Mark Driscoll on Reverse Engineering at a blog I’ve been following for a while.  He has some great stuff or really thinking through priorities, setting some goals, and working backwards from where you want to be at some point in the future.  I highly recommend for anyone to take the time to check it out.  I listened to it once on my own and once with Rachel, and I’m really looking forward to refocusing our lives in the next week or two.  Right off the bat there’s a few things that I know I personally need to refocus on and make a priority:

1. Date Nights
2. Sabbath
3. Alone time with Jesus

I can’t wait to see what sorts of other stuff comes up as we sit down and do this together.  I know God is doing something good in me right now.  How about you?  What does your 2007 look like?  Where do you need to refocus this year?

Joel, Rachel’s brother, got this really sweet camera from his girlfriend for Christmas.  So with it he’s been taking all sorts of pictures, including several of Caleb.  And he got some great shots!!  Thought I’d share a few with you.  Have I mentioned that it’s great being a dad?  Enjoy!

"I just really hope that David doesn’t want me to start a blog."  Those were the words that came out of her mouth shortly after being hired as the pastor of belong/grow.  She refused to read blogs.  Said she’d never start one.  I thought the day would never come.  But I’m proud to announce that even Christina Walker has a blog now!!  Now I’ve seen it all.

So, I have a blog, Dave‘s had a blog for a long time, Jenny has a blog, Christina has a blog, and I believe Angelina said she was working on a blog to put up.  C’mon staff!!  Where the rest of you at?  Charlie?  Elijah?  Waitin for yout to represent!  Christopher?  Maybe a little "I Love Bellflower" bolg, eh?  Hey, now that Christina has one I think anyone might convert.

It’s kinda like the friend in high school who you say will never become a Christian.  Then you see em a few years later and their all sold out for Jesus.  and it gives you the confidence to share even more, cause if they were saveable, anybody is!  Yup, that’s what I’m thinkin.  So who’s next?

That’s how I spent my weekend.  My really good friend Chris Hoff is getting married this coming Saturday and I am way honored and blessed to be a part of his wedding party.  So this past weekend we threw him his bachelor party.

Now I know you traditionally aren’t supposed to share all about bachelor parties, but I think it’s plenty kosher to share what we did and some fun pics from the weekend.  The progression from Friday night to Saturday night: Clippers game in the box suite at Staples, drive to the mountains, snowboarding all morning, get lunch, drive home, party with more than just the groomsman while playing Guitar Hero 2 (running theme with that game?) and watching Tito Ortiz get spanked by Chuck Lidell.  Here’s some fun pics from the weekend:

The view from our suite.

The view of our suite.

Us in front of Staples after the game.

Us with the shelterless friend who took the other photo for us.

Hoff gettin ready to snowboard.

Waitin for the fight to start.

Rick and Larry playin GH2 (I could have posted the video, but I held off!).