A True Story or Two

Yesterday was Wednesday. What that means for me is that i have to arise at the ungodly hour of 7am in order to make it to my 8:15 class. Yesterday (Wednesday) Morning, I woke to my alarm, and felt especially exhausted and had very, very, very little desire to get out of bed. So i lay there for a good ten minutes listening to the news on the radio before my phone rang. The love of my life was calling, and she had some information for me. She told me what she needed to, and then we went on with our days seperatly. I headed for the shower, and she headed for, well i don't know, cause i wasn't there. After i emerged from the shower, i dried myself and began the re-clothification process. I noticed that my boxer-briefs felt a little uncomfortable, but didn't notice it too much, continued with the process and scurried off to school with Green Day blasting in my ears. I attended a class that was a waste of my time, and then headed home for an hour before i had to be at chapel. Upon returning home i felt the need to visit the john and do my natural business. As i made the journey and began the process i noticed that my boxers were on backwards. I really felt like an idiot. So, I fixed it, and proceeded to keep it to myself until now. I have shared my shame with you.

In other news, i have cast my ballot, and made my speech to possibly serve as student coucil presidant for the next school year. This is exciting, but also nerve wracking because if i win, i will be forthwith committed to the city of Calgary until May of next year. Scary, especially considering that Churches are calling, and emailing me. It's been really tough to watch my friends start the process of finding a church, and having to sit and wait, but it's been even more tough to start hearing from churches and say no to them. It's a little scary, and i know that people have told me that it isn't bad to say no, or anything like that, but I feel a little like, the more i say no, the less churches are going to want to talk to me. Even though i know this isn't true, it's still a uncomfortable feeling that exists in the pit of my stomach. So far, i have been contacted by Churches in Bonnyville, Sherwood Park, and now Maple Ridge, and so far, i have had to tell them all no. I hope i'm doing the right thing.

Weddings

So, I have recently begun to contribute to the actual planning of my wedding which is allegedly supposed to take place sometime this summer. My work has consisted of finding a disc jockey to have at our dance. This has been difficult because, all of the local DJ's are booked for that weekend. Then i had to spread my net to include some DJ's from farther away, which essentially turned out to mean that they were twice as expensive. Having limited funds with which to work, and knowing the essentialness of having a disc jockey run the musical show that is our dance, i found myself in a pickle.

let's pause for a moment and consider the image of "being in a pickle" and how, that actually would be a terribly frightening thing to actually be "in a pickle"

Eventually, i found someone who was reasonable priced, but now i am praying that his "resonable price" does not indicate his "less then reasonable skill and quality". I guess we shall see, and by we, i mean we considering that most of the people that i think read this blog will be at my wedding, say for a person or two who may have decided to go overseas at the time. Anyway, the fact is, i have done very little actual planning of my wedding. I have had input on some descisions, and i even helped put the invitations together....kind of (Cara made them, i was allowed to put them in envelopes), but as far as anything else my participation has been minimal, which i think is the norm when it comes to planning the wedding. The other thing i have had to do is arrange for the suits for myself and the groomsman, which was no problem at all, except now, i want to bring them all in together to get measured while we are still here in Calgary together. The other and so far final responsibility of mine involves the catering. I have a contact from my interning church who is a fantastic caterer, and we are using him, but i just need to go over the details and so on with him.

All in all, i think you would agree with me, that i have done very little in the grand scheme of things. But from what little i have had to do, i have come to realize and appreciate, just how much work, and how much money it is to create and execute a half decent wedding. So, if any of you are considering getting married soon, i highly recommend that you be prepared in whatever way you can for the stresses (and joys) of planning a wedding.

Those of you thinking about getting married, don't take this the wrong way, i am not trying to discourage you from getting married, i am so incredibly happy to be getting hitched to the woman i love, but the actual planning stages can be overwhelming sometimes.

If you want to listen to a good song today, i recommend the song "Extraordinary" by Joel Plaskett Emergancy. It's from his record "Truthfully, Truthfully". I listened to this record as i walked to school today, and found it to be quite enjoyable overall. I hadn't listened to it much, since i recieved it many months ao from my good friend and colleuge Tim Houghton, but now have had the pleasure to give it a close listen and found it to be excellent. Anyway, should you feel like enjoying a piece of music, check out "Extraordinary" by Joel Plaskett.

The As-Of-Yet Untold Story of Youth Conferance 06

Hey teens. Here is a recounting of the tale of Youth Conferance 06 from my perspective. Hope it's at least interesting to you.

Youth Conferance started a week ago today. In the weeks leading up to that point I had not been excited or overly anticipitory regarding the event that i love so much. This is strange because in past years, i have been so excited for youth conferance in the weeks leading up to it, that i was pretty much willing to wet myself to make it come faster. This year it just came, with no buildup, no excitment, which was making me disappointed because i was aware of the lack of excitment.

Last Friday Morning (which was St. Patricks Day by the by) I woke up and was finally excited. The speaker (Warren Reeve) was speaking in chapel, i had errands to run, The Conferance Center was being set up, delegates would be arriving soon, finally, it was here and so was my excitement.

My excitment soon turned to fatigue as i awaited the arrival of my friends from both North Vancouver and Vermilion. I didn't go into the first rally because i wanted to wait and greet my friends from the aformentioned locations. So i helped man the registration booth, in hopes that i would be able to be there when my friends arrived, and i was. Interestingly enough i had to wait a very long time for both groups to show up, in fact Vermilion was the last group to arrive, and didn't show up until the middle of the first rally. I felt bad for them, because they missed some of the conferance, but hey, what are you gonna do, i was just glad to have them in Calgary safe and sound. Once everyone was settled in, the conferance continued and finished that night around nine pm. The Vermilionairres and I went out for Tim Hortons, and then back to the dorm where they would be hosted by myself and my sister, gender respectivly. We didn't stay up to late, and made our way to bed pretty quick knowing that the morning would come sooner then any of really wanted.

The morning did come, and i met up with a quad of people to head up early and spend time in prayer for the conferance. (in case you didn't know my job was to praym as i was on the prayer sub-committee) We showed up, gathered all the prayer people together and began to share and pray. I was feeling out of sorts, slightly disconnected from the atmosphere of prayer, but i chalked (props to Sarah Chalke) it up to being really tired from the day before. Then the rally came and i couldn't connect in worship, still i chalked it up to ultra fatigue, and i spent most of the rally outside speaking with a friend who had recently and suprisingly been dumped by his woman. He was broken, and I was broken on his behalf, i just felt horrible for him, and i felt fine about skipping out on the rally to spend time talking to him and listening to his hurts and confusions.

The day rolled on, and i didn't have much to do. So, i visited with my former mentor, the impeccable Kyle Keller. We visited, talked about church, life, relationships, and the regular things we talk about when ever we see each other. I spent most of the afternoon wandering, and visiting whenever i found someone worth visiting with.

Before the third rally, it was my job to lead prayer with the worship team and speaker, so i headed backstage and began a time of prayer, during with i felt distracted and even agitated. I was especially agitated by the ruckus being caused by the people in the next room, who were ignorant of the spiritual things going on in the next room. Someone went over and asked them to be quiet, but they continued to be loud and obnoxious, and i went over immeadiatly and lost it on them, i was totally condescending and rude and angry, and that was like the TSN Turning Point for me. I just wanted to go home, i was so mortified with my actions. I was ashamed and frustrated for a number of reasons, and took it out on these people who didn't deserve to be treated the way i treated them. Thankfully, i was able to humble myself enough to go and immeadiatly apologize to the people i was directly rude to, and they were forgiving. This was the ultimate in humiliation for me, not the apologizing, but the act itself, i knew something was wrong with me, and i didn't know how to fix it.

The third rally, and second one of the saturday came and went, with me feeling continually and regularly disconnected from prayer, worship and the community that was created in both. I really can't explain it any more then that, it's like my prayer team was all plugged in to the outlet that was God, who was feeding them electricity and in more human terms the ability to hear from him, and speak to him and worship him, and i felt like someone unplugged me and forgot to plug me back in. I was feeling really strange about it, it was causing me to be depressed and frustrated, and jealous of my teammates who were praying and worshipping and really seeing God at work in thier midst. I left the conferance that night feeling spiritually drained and quite lonely. Sleep came fairly quickly Saturday evening, once again knowing that life and morning would come much sooner then i wanted it to.

Sunday Morning came without a shower. But that was ok, because i had showered the evening before, knowing full well that there would be no hot water if i attempted to do it in the morining. I put my clothes on, and met up with my quad of people again travelling in the Catherine Davis-mobile. We arrived and went right to prayer, ok thats not true, i remember i really had to use the facilities, and i did that before we started praying. The i met up with the team, prayer began and i continued to feel distracted and disconnected, and by this point i had had enough. I just wanted to quit and go home, but insstead i went and found Connie my team leader. I explained to Connie how i was feeling, and the things that were going on with me, she said she had noticed, and then she and another leader prayed aggresivly for me, in the name of Jesus commanding the darkness, the oppression, the evil that was clouding me to leave. I was a little embarresed to be honest, because Connie was so loud that i figured people assumed she was performing an exorcism on me. I denied these thoughts because i knew they were an attempt by the enemy to keep me from experiancing freedom and healing.

After Connie prayed I felt plugged back in. It was a struggle as if, the enemy was trying to pull me back out of the socket, feeding me lies, telling me that i was not forgiven, that i could not talk to God, and that i was evil, and all these things, and i just needed to rebuke these lies and not give them any foothold in my life, which was not easy. But God and I powered through it, and we were able to overcome it, and i plugged back into worship, prayer, and community. Praise God

One of the things that had been on the heart of our prayer councellors and leaders had been God using us and our spiritual gifts to defeat the enemy. I didn't know how i was going to fit into this, people were displaying gifts in the area of vision, prophesy, intersessory prayer and other things, and i just didn't see myself fitting in.

The final rally came, and the fight was on. The first experiance was the deployment of our prayer councellors, but that was delayed by three things. First, there were people giving testimonies in the rally who felt very under attack and we were trying to find them and pray with them, second, our pre-rally prayer time had run late, and third, two of our main leaders were dealing with some personal attacks, but we couldn't wait anymore for them, so i took the rest of our team and got them in place, and the rally began.

The next attack was on our team leader, Connie, who as i came close to her was shaking and crying and was definitly feeling the attack of the enemy. Three of us gathered around and began to rebuke the enemy, taking authority over them in the name of Jesus, it was so intense, because i had the opportunity and neccesity to prayer over Connie the same way she had prayed for me that morning. That situation came under control, but next was the co-ordination of the efforts and spiritual sense of our prayer councellors, which i took it upon myself to take care of. I realized it later, but this was God's way of using my spiritual gift of leadership, to take initiative and organize and co-ordiante the efforts of our prayer councellors. And not to puff myself up, but God lead me, used me, and was able to make his presence and Glory known through how he worked in me and through our team as we all made ourselves available to be used by him for his glory.

God took the victory. All Praise is Due Him.

After the rally, things settled down for about five minutes until the pizza party, and then things went wild again, but not in the spiritual way, more the goofy having fun way. The Vermilionairres and I returned back to the dorm, we hung out for a bit and then hit the sack.

In the morning, they loaded up and went home, although, thier loading up was not complete as Kyle left some personal items at my home. I went to a meeting at 10:30 am, was home by 11:11am, and then slept until 5pm. It was quite the weekend.

Props to you if you actually managed to read this entire post.

If you had no feet would you still wear socks?

The title has nothing to do with the blog...

Top Five Reasons that TV Show on DVD is the greatest invention ever

1. No waiting week to week
2. You will never miss an episode
3. You can Watch Marathons of TV shows without waiting for the network to appease your desire for eight consecutive episodes in a row
4. The telephone and Internet aren't that cool anyway
5. Cause TV shows on VHS never took off.

My Current Top Five TV Shows on DVD

1. 24
2. Scrubs
3. Smallville
4. The Cosby Show
5. Lost


in case you were wondering, i recently began watching the television show "24" on DVD, i have finished season one and have gotten six episodes in to season 2. This is one amazing show, and i can't imagine having to wait a week or more (stupid tv season breaks) to watch the next episode of this show. It's that amazing. Check it out.

It's Rush Hour

Last night I had a dream. I woke from it with a start, because it was confusing, and for a few moments i was convinced that these things in my dream had actually happened. It was distressing, as dreams can be, and all thats left of it in my mind is bits and pieces, images and flashbacks to scattered images and emotions. So here it is.

JON KRAMER IS DEAD.

I find myself at some sort of service, or after service gathering sitting with his wife Kim, comforting her, trying to piece together the details of what happened.

He died in a horrible Car wreck, and it was so bad, his body was basically torn in two and scattered in a bloody, pulpy, mess down the road for about 4 city blocks.

and the next thing i remember is actually very strange.

JON was alive, and so then i was confused, and i thought, was it Kim who died? but no, JON KRAMER WAS DEAD, but was no alive as if this previous part of the dream never happened.

Then i was comforting my friend Colin Turner, he was a wreck, as if his wife had died, but that was never stated or even really implictily implied, but he was weeping and with the snot and so on.

Why am I dreaming about these people? I don't know. Maybe cause i check Jon's blog and it hasn't been updated in a while, and i feel like he's dead in my sub-concious. Colin? I don't know, i haven't seen Colin since last week and we only spent about 20 minutes together, although i did watch him play a soccer game on Friday afternoon. Who knows.

Why am i dreaming about death? My dad's uncle (so it would be my great uncle) passed away very early Thursday morning, and so my parents flew out and the funeral service was actually today. So it makes sense that death would be in my dream, but anyway, i just wanted to share that with you all, cause it shows once again how interesting dreams can be, and also it shows how i am incredibly fascinated by dreams. If i wasn't being a pastor, i would be a scientist who studies dreams and that sort of thing. Anyway, it was a lovely service, and a wonderful time of visiting and re-connecting with family.

I feel like i actually had more to share with you, like some little nugget of substance, but apperantly not, just a morbid dream. Maybe it will come to me later.

Song of the day: Peaceful Valley - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. I know i used these guys alot back in January and December and so on, but this is the currently playing song on my MP3 player, and so it has become the song of the day, and it is about death and heaven and stuff, so it at least has some connection to my thoughts and meanderings.

Oh i think i wanted to talk about my hero complex....maybe some other time.

ps. all the graphic stuff about Jon Kramer's death in my dream was false. I dreamed he died in a car accident, but when i told Matt Russell about it, he suggested i include some graphic details for Jon's amusement.

WWJMD? (What Would Jon Morrison Do?)

So last night i had an interesting experiance.
All Day, I hung out with Cara, no that's not the interesting experiance to which i refer, this experiance came as i made my way home. Cara dropped me off at the Brentwood C-Train station here in Calgary, and i made my way up the long flight of stairs, only to see the train coming toward the station at a rapid pace. Despite the fact that my bladder was full beyond recognition i set out at a solid canter in order to make this train and not have to wait 15 minutes in the blinding cold. By the grace of God, I was able not only to make the train, but i was also able to not wet myself doing so. So, i hobbled onto the train, the first door on the front car, and upon entering, i was dismayed to notice someone lying on the ground, motionless, and reeking of mouthwash. I stepped over this man, went down the car, and sat down, as i myself was out of breath and was in no mood to deal with this inconvienance. I put my headphones on, and watched as the passengers around me all discussed the man who was lying on the floor no more then 15 feet away. The thing you have to understand about the c-train at this time of year is that the floor of it is absolutly soaked. It's like a lake of wetness from the melting snow and slush of the many passengers who ride the train all day, and this man was lying smack dab in it. Back to me. I sat, and kept looking at him, trying to ignore the thoughts that were invading my heart. "What would Jesus do?" (cliche i know), "What would Jesus say to this man?" "Why aren't you helping this man?", "Go and talk to him", "Be Christ to this man", "Just ask him if he needs your help", "What would Jesus do?".
Seriously, there was a battle in my heart, and my mind, a battle of the spirit versus my fear and pride. I took out my headphones, put them away, and walked down toward the place where the man was passed out. I waited a minute when i got down there, because there were so many people around, and i didn't know why, but i wanted less people to be around. I walked over, poked the man in the arm and asked him if he was alright. There was no movement, and no responce, i lingered for a moment, waiting, but there was nothing, so i left him. I went back to where i was standing, and a couple people asked me if he was alright, if he said anything, and i said no. I got the feeling that there were a few people who wanted to check the man, maybe talk to him, but didn't have the courage. I guess i was expecting something huge, like i would look at him, all Jesus like and tell him to go and sin no more, and he would be fine, and he would become a christian, and so on, and i wasn't expecting this because i wanted to be glorified, but because i felt that i was following the leading of the Spirit and i figured if the Spirit was leading me to do something so out of my comfort zone, that something big would happen, but it didn't. My stop came up, and i hopped off the train, walked home and thought. Thought about how i was happy that i was actually able to obey the Spirit, and even though, there didn't seem to be much of a result, the fact that i actually went and did it was an encouragement to me, and left me feeling good about hearing God and obeying him. The other thing i thought about was my fear to do this publicly and how ridiculous that must've seemed to Christ, who never waited to be alone with the lepers and the demon possesed, and the crippled, and the drunks, and the social outcasts. He didn't wait for what i would call an ideal situation, he took people as they were, and loved them, healed them, spoke truth and grace into thier lives and didn't wait until he could get them alone, because ministry doesn't happen on your own, or more specifically my own terms.
I guess that's about it. I have no profound summing up for you, it was an interesting experiance for me, because where i would usually feel contempt for people in this situation and frustrated at the lack of social programs that seemed to deal with these people and keep them out of my face, i was filled with compassion, which i believe was from God and God alone, cause i usually don't care about people like that.

Song of the day is "The Sound of Settling" by Death Cab for Cutie. It was in my head earlier and i was singing part of it out loud. You know the part that goes "Ba Baa, this is the sound of settling, Ba Baa, Ba Baa". Check it out.

ps. Howie Mandel is on TV, he is dumb, he shouldn't be on TV.
pps. i know i used Jon Morrison's name in my blog title, and that he had nothing to do with this blog, but i just couldn't bring myself to title the blog "WWJD?" so "WWJMD?" was the next best thing, plus i saw him today, and he still has this bed i loaned to him two years ago, so it seemed appropriatly innapropriate.