Running on fumes

This may be my last post from the Democratic People's Republic. It's been a good run, and I'm off to bigger and better things. I'm going to be making a move to greener pastures that should be better for everyone included. You'll all have one less blog to check up on, and there won't be any frustration from seeing the same dead post day after day.

In short, this blog will soon be retired. But never forget... General's don't die, they just fade away. Actually, they just switch blogs.

PEACE!

I lied

I am amazed at how Christians (and people in general) can get so hung up on what they are accustomed to that they completely miss the heart. For example, I go to a worship service at 6:30pm on Sunday that is comprised primarily of 20-somethings. Often times a conversation will arise where I say that I do not go to church on Sunday morning, I go to an evening service, and just about every time I get a funny look or a rediculous comment. Even those that I go to church with tell me, "You should really come to the morning service." It's all I can do to keep from rolling my eyes. I overheard a comment the other day (in an encouraging tone), "You know, I think that's the only service that (so and so) goes to."

OF COURSE IT IS!!! WHY WOULD I GO TO ANOTHER ONE?!

The service I go to is two hours long... at least. We spend about a half hour in worship, probably 15 minutes or so in prayer, a half hour to 45 minutes listening a message which is almost exclusively taken directly from scripture, then break into small groups and discuss for 15 minutes or so. What am I missing that would require my attendence in a church pew? I was describing the worship and the style to a friend of mine and he asked a very appropriate and pointed question, "Do you find it difficult to get fed at services like that?" I said, "Normally I would, except that the pastors speak almost exclusively out of the Word. Every message is a scriptural analysis and application. In the past year there has been ONE topical series." My friend has correctly perceived that most "young" and experiential worship services are usually pretty light on spiritual meat and heavy on the milk. This one is not. In fact, I would definitively say that I get a lot more meat out of this church than I have from most of the previous churches I have attended.

Sometimes I think that people are seriously hung up on the fact that the service doesn't happen at 9:00am. I'll be honest, I don't really like my churches "regular" services. I don't much care for the worship because it strikes me as disingenuine and rehearsed. The messages don't reach me and the speaking style doesn't appeal to me. I'm sorry, but I don't care for the "Open with a joke, 1st point, scripture, 2nd point, scripture, 3rd point, prayer, benediction" style. It doesn't challenge me intellectually and it doesn't captivate me stylistically. I'll steal something my cousin once told me to describe the third reason I don't care for the morning services: My non-lutheran cousin was attending a Lutheran church because at least when she went there she didn't expect to talk to anyone and wasn't dissappointed when she didn't. When she went to evangelical churches she would get frustrated because the service was supposed to be engaging but no one made any attempt to engage her. At lutheran services she could at least be meditative because everyone was there to do their thing and go home.

In the words of a Tennessee chaplain, "I don't understand how churches can have bulletins. Did the Spirit show up last week and tell you how he was going to move?"

Now don't get me wrong: I love evangelicals. I am one. Just don't ask me to go to their worship services.

One Day...

One day, I'll have something to say. Today is not that day.

Tid bits and whatnot

Sorry for the delay, folks. I suppose I have some explaining to do. Well, I've been pretty beat for the last couple of weeks (actually, more like the last couple of months). I had SARS for about a week or so and didn't have enough energy to do... well, anything... let alone blog. I even fell behind on paying my bills because I've been so exhausted from work. It's funny, though, because I've always been a night owl and no matter how hard I tried I could never go to bed at a reasonable hour. After I got sick I was going to bed at like 9:00pm every night. Now that I am healthy I still find that I am ready to pass out by 10pm.

You all might also be interested to learn that I am now seeing someone. That's right, folks, the General's got a woman. We've been officially dating for a couple of weeks now. Some of you know this and some of you may have heard through the grape vine. I apologize to anyone that had to hear second-hand and felt slighted. In my own defense, it happened fairly suddenly, and I am still reeling from the shock. I think I needed time to get comfortable with the idea myself before I went around telling everybody else. Just so you know, she's awesome. Hopefully, you will all meet her sooner rather than later.

That's pretty much all for now. I apologize for not having any deep or insightful thoughts. It's past my bedtime and I'm tired. This might also be the result of unbalanced stimulation. Although I am being challenged at work, all of my mental exercises are of a particular type. Other areas of my life are unfortunately being neglected, resulting in a somewhat unbalanced General. I am making an effort to correct this, but it will take some time.

Just so you all know, I am still owning my job right now, and I'm becoming kind of a big deal. My room is starting to smell like rich mahogany and I've started collecting leather-bound books.

Did you know that the word "blog" is not in blogger's spellcheck dictionary? Mind-blowing.

I think I have SARS (or the Bird Flu)

Well, I've been feeling sick since Monday. My body was really achey and at times I found it hard to focus on my computer screen. I decided I would go to bed early and try to beat this thing before I got really sick. I went into work again on Tuesday and still felt really achey, my throat was sore, and for some reason my gums were swollen, I don't know what's up with that. Tuesday evening I was sitting at my desk shivering I was so frickin' cold. So, I went to bed early again and wore a jacket to work which I didn't take off all day. I also noticed part way through the day that my right hand in between the knuckles of my pinky and ring finger was starting to hurt. This is probably more related to me developing carpal tunnel than SARS.
So, I got home Wednesday night after stopping at Walgreens to pick up NyQuil, vitamin C, DCT, and carmex (because I also have a cold sore that's driving me crazy). When I walked in the door I noticed there was a note from Marilynn. Marilynn is a woman that lives up the street and periodically cleans our house because my brother periodically helps her fix up her house. The note from Marilynn told me that Lexi had left a brown bag for me in the fridge that had chili, echinecea tea, orange juice, and water. Awesome!
So, I went to bed last night and periodically woke up because I was either freezing cold or sweating through my shirt because I was so hot (which get's really cold really quickly). I took the day off work to try to recover, then I went to Walgreens to get some Gatorade, tylenol, and a thermometer (because I know I have a fever but I don't know how high). How high? So high that I could touch the sky? How sick? Well, pretty frickin' sick. My fever is rockin' the charts at 101.2.
I'm going to the doctor in a couple hours, I'll let you know whether I have SARS or the Bird Flu.

Fine Mexican Cuisine

Villa Park is really an amazing place to live. Cradled in the bosom of the Chicagoland area, Villa Park boasts quick access to I-88, 290, 294, and 355. There's not alot to do in Villa Park, but you can get the hell out real easy. I'm thinking about devoting a series of posts to the great garden village, Villa Park.
This post is devoted to the greatest Mexican restaurant on the corner of St. Charles and Westmore-Meyers in the world. There are four things I love about Los Burritos Mexicanos.
1) Their Baby Burrito is as big as your head. I've only heard rumors about their regular burrito. None who have seen it have lived to tell the tale. By all accounts: It's frickin' gigantic.
2) It's a full-service / fast food restaurant. You can get a quick burrito and get out the door, or you can sit down to enjoy some chips and salsa before your food arrives at your table.
3) It's pretty frickin' cheap. Any time I can get enough calories to get me through a day for less than 5 dollars, I consider America a victory.
4) Horchata! (http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/horchata.htm, or http://members.tripod.com/~iskra/nomilk/rmilk4.htm)

The Mexican Horchata is pretty much the world's most perfect drink. It's so good I don't even think ALCOHOL could make it better. If a churro were a refreshing drink, it would be a Horchata. My only problem with the Horchata is it seems like a pain to make. Lucky for me there is a fine restaurante Mexicano no more than 2 blocks away from my back door. Score: Villa Park.

Am I Emergent?

I seriously need help figuring this out. I guess my first problem is I don't really understand what the hell "emergent" is. I'm pretty sure I hate it, so I'll be pretty disappointed if I find out I am.

Perhaps I am only emergent in certain areas? Could that be the case?

I am willing to classify myself as emergent in terms of worship style. Although, I'm not real sure my worship style is really all that "emerging". I like to pray, and I like to sing, and I like to listen to good teaching from the Word. I don't really see this as anything new by any stretch. I suppose I would say that the churches I like are a little more experimental. We will occasionally break into discussion groups, or pray for one another, or take time to meditate. None of this is really new, though. It's not even new to the worship service. The "Emergent" church hardly has a monopoly on passionate worship services.

Is it more appropriate to call the "Emergent" church the "Adaptive" church? Because it seems like the emergent church is anything that adapts to the surrounding culture.

I think I am probably somewhat emergent because I have a strong distaste for worship services that are even the slightest bit disingenuous. I can't handle fake passion. I become incensed when I see it. In that way I think I might be considered emergent.

I do believe that it is the role of the congregation to seek out non-believers to invite them into the community of believers (which may not mean inviting them to a church service for some time). I may be emergent in this respect.

I sometimes get the feeling, however, that the emergent church is a bit humanitarian. Which is fine. But a quick jog through some of my previous posts would reveal that although I believe in loving my neighbor as myself, it comes second to loving God. I also believe that death and pain and hell are a part of God's plan to bring himself Glory, and I'm totally okay with that.

I like making definitive statements. I oft joke that if people don't believe the same way I do they don't love Jesus. I joke, of course, but I don't have a problem saying that people don't understand the truth of the Kingdom. I may not always vocalize these thoughts, but that's mostly because I'm really non-confrontational, which has nothing to do with being emergent or not. In fact, as previously posted, I abhor qualifying truthful statements with, "In my experience...", "I think...", "I'm not really sure about you, but I believe...", "... I don't know, that's just what I think." These phrases have found their way into my vernacular like the word "like", not because I invited them in, but because my culture has forced them down my throat and I vomit them out without realizing I'm doing it.

I HATE the following word: conversation.

If I had to pick a word that I wished defined my philosophy and my lifestyle as a Christian, it would be this: Reformer.

Shadow has become self aware

Shadow is my mutt. My brother took her in to keep her from being destroyed in order to find her a good home. Ultimately, that good home ended up being HIS home. So Shadow stayed. She is a black lab of sorts. She is about the size of a lab, but she is much leaner and more muscular. She's got haunches like a greyhound and always looks like she's about to launch herself into a sprint or into the air. She looks like some kind of mix between a lab, a greyhound, and perhaps a rottweiler, but we really have no idea.

When we took her in she was very timid and shy. Before long she had usurped Molly's role as top dog in the house. Now Shadow is the alpha female. Of the two dogs, I could probably do without Shadow. She has alot of annoying "dog" habits. She sometimes craps in the basement. She humps Molly (which is really disturbing even though it's not at all sexual). She barks. She wines. She is a glutton for attention and will force her head into your hand, paw at you, and bark at you until you pet her. She is also an outside dog, so her paws are always dirty, which means all my jeans have paw prints on them because she jumps on me when I walk in the door. She is, however, very entertaining.

Here are some amusing anecdotes of Shadows talents:
She can open the cupboards. Even after my brother installed child locks on all the cupboards, Shadow figured out how to swing the doors open a couple inches and paw at the locks until the doors swing open.

She can open drawers and chewed up one of my brothers sweaters.

She has about a three foot vertical. She can bound over 4 foot chain link fences without touching the fence. When my brother put in a 5-foot picket fence that she wouldn't be able to climb (because she climbed out of our 8 foot chain link kennel), she figured out that she could jump up high enough to straddle the fence with her belly, then roll over the top.

Our storm door has a handle on it that Shadow can open at a full sprint so she can burst out of the door to bark at motorcycles that pass by.

Now I think she is becoming self-aware. She has now learned how to open our outside doors to get into the house. She turns the knob by pawing at it from the side until it unlatches and opens for her. She's like AI. She gets smarter every frickin' day. Which is entertaining, but makes her more unmanageable.

My real problem with Shadow is that she thinks she outranks me. So every now and then when she is jumping on me I put her in a headlock and pin her on the ground to show her who's boss. Rest assured, she does NOT like it when I do that. But the bitch has to know her place.