Catch Up

Hello all my blog people.

I just got back from a Middle School retreat the 25-27, and a High School retreat August 18-20. I'm a little sore, a little sunburned, but still feelin good. This is officially the end of my "summer season" and it's been great, but also brutal. I miss my interns and my family and some friends....only some of them. Ha, kidding. Ok, since that wasn't funny let's move on.

I just finished The Secret Message of Christ. It was really good. McLaren (the author) does a good job of laying out his case for getting back to what Christ was talking about- the kingdom. Not American politics or justifications for this stance or that stance neccessarily, but the kingdom of God being at hand.

I was in a good conversation with one of our Sunday School leaders here at church, talking about books we were reading (like the one above) and he reccomended Steven Hawking's A Briefer History of Time. So i've been checking that out too. In reading about space-time continuims (sp?) i've learned the skill of accepting what I can't grasp and moving on. There's much blog-worthy material here. Basically the most brilliant man in the world (by the world's standards...) literally puts his hope in the stars. Lots to talk about there. I'm reading this to better understand the nature of the scientific community and why the subject of God and science converging seems so incongruous to so many.

I also just noticed I start a lot of paragraphs off with the word I....

Before I left for the retreats, we had a youth group session where the Middle Schoolers could write down any question they wanted to and then we'd read em' and see what we got. It was very reminiscent of sex-ed class in 5th grade. Luckily we didn't delve into anatomical issues, but here's two that we did get:

"When will the world come to an end? Don't want answer of 'never' or 'don't know'."
-I like that last part

here's another:

"If anyone could die any second than why do people bother to be someone? And how do I know if I need to forgive someone before I die?"

Dang. Two blog worthy candidates right there too.

Also, John Mayer and (more importantly) Robert Randolph & the Family Band are coming out with new albums soon. I pre-ordered the RRFB album, and then got an email saying they pushed back the release date from the end of September to October 6. I'd love to send THEM an email saying i'm going to delay my payment and see how that went over. Oh well. Another rant for another time.

So that's whats been going on with me. I get to spend some time with my special lady friend and my family over the next couple weeks. That'll be nice. So, i've got a lot stewin in this brain of mine.

So, with all this in mind, here's Blog topics soon to come:
-The Secret Message of Christ
-Steven Hawking, and time itself
-The End of the World
-Forgiveness
-Robert Randolph album
-Why John Mayer is a great musician but knows it, and why that is a problem
-SNAKES ON A PLANE REVIEW! Sorry I snuck that one in at the end. I've been runnin around so much, a little Samuel L will do a body good. Yes, I know its tacky and without class, but at least they're being upfront with it.

Sorry this was so sporadic.

Peace.