25 Things About Me

This is a cross post from something I did on Facebook. And I realize it will be double posted there now but oh well.

1. My eyes used to be brown, now they are green/hazel, and I have what looks like a freckle on one of my irises.

2. I am color blind. I was taking physical to become a student pilot, and I failed the color test. I even went to the school of optometry in Fullerton and had it verified. But I have 20/15 acuity, so you can all suck it.

3. I have been growing out my hair for fun, and because I don't ever feel like going to a barber. The amount of gray hair I have now is a little scary. It really makes me want to get a haircut soon rather then later.

4. I got into swing music during high school during the whole swing revival thing, that led me into Jazz during college, which a lot of guys get into. But it has stuck with me. Nowadays there is little more I like to do then sit back and listen to a Miles Davis, Bill Evans, or Charles Mingus album and just chill.

5. I am still as interested in video games as I was twenty years ago, although being married seriously cuts into my video game playing time.

6. Speaking of being Married; My wife is proof that God loves me and wants me to be happy, and also that he doesn't want me to play video games all the time, and leave my dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, and fold my clean clothes when they come out of the dryer, and not eat pizza 4 nights a week, and not eat In-N-Out the other 3 nights. So God truly has blessed me in marriage.

7. I like my Zune way better then any IPod I have ever seen or used.

8. Despite what Bud Selig and the record keepers of Major League Baseball may say I have a seen a Dodger no-hitter.

9. I relish when I will be able to tell my kids about all the hall of famers I saw play baseball in person. Ricky Henderson, Eddie Murray, Tony Gwynn, Gary Carter, okay maybe not so much Gary Carter. And I did see Manny, who should make the Hall.

10. Despite not really being much of a drinker I have a keen interest in alcohol. I have an ever growing collection of boozes. And while most people I know that go to bars order silly mixed drinks, I have developed a fondness for classic cocktails like Sidecars, Singapore Slings, Cuba Libre and Tom Collins. But don’t get on me if I break down and have a pina colada.

11. Hearing the song “Centerfield” by John Fogerty during the late winter makes me miss the baseball season more then anything. I start itching for pitchers and catchers reporting, and can't wait to go to Dodger Stadium.

12. In terms of favorite meals there is a real battle between Shakey’s Pizza, a really good cut of prime rib, deep fried shrimp, and a 3x3 from In-N-Out.

13. I find myself becoming more and more liberal as a I grow older. In both political views and in some theological ones too. I now oppose the death penalty, and am a proponent of treatment instead of incarceration for most drug offenses. If you knew me when I was younger this would probably freak you out.

14. “Love God, Love People, if necessary use words.” Best advise I was ever given.

15. I like having a beard. It means I don’t have to shave and it covers up the Davenport double chin I inherited from my Mother’s side of the family. I will probably get rid of it pretty soon. I started growing it around the time of my last birthday, good time to get rid of it is at this year’s birthday.

16. If I had the money and time I would love to go to school and get an M.Div or M.A. in Theology. I didn’t really appreciate my Bible classes enough my first time through Biola, and really loved them when I went back through to finish up my degree.

17. As a kid I wanted to be a pilot and still would but color blindness presents quite the obstacle. I would also like to be a professional chef, but I have an inordinate disdain for all vegetables that are not potatoes.

18. If I could learn an instrument I would love to learn the upright double bass. And I would want to play jazz music with it.

19. The radio industry is not glamorous. It is where talented beautiful people spend time until they get on TV, and where talented ugly people fight, bicker, and play politics. There are very few genuinely nice people in major market radio.

20. Working on an ambulance was some of the most fun I ever had in a job. I worked really long hours. But I got lots of time off, and there is few things better then having a weekday off, you can get everything done that you want to without the weekend crowds.

21. The people that help you in an ambulance when you are dying and hurt, and the people that take care of your children when you take them to a child care center both make less then a new employee at In-N-Out. Think about that, and it is a little scary.

22. I buy everything except groceries online. I live on Amazon.com. My underwear comes from Jockey.com. I haven’t ordered pizza over the phone in years.

23. The idea of working in politics interests me greatly, but the amount of compromise, posturing, and outright lying wouldn’t allow me to be effective. Plus I live in California which means my image is almost more important then my message. And of course there is that thing that happened with the stripper in Tijuana, I know that will come back and get me in the end some day.

24. I have seen Garth Brooks live, and I have eaten in Club 33. Two of my long time dreams fulfilled and both thanks to my youngest brother Reid.

25. God’s grace amazes me more and more every day. The forgiveness He offers us just blows my mind. But how often we fail to forgive others, I am sure that saddens the Lord.

Sidenote: In relation to item #25, I look at someone like Ted Haggard. And I am more saddened by how the Christian community treated him after his sin, then the sin he actually committed. What does that say about Christians and forgiveness?

Book Review: The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle

I have a somewhat conservative religious background. My church growing up was an independent Baptist church that was very fundamental. I attended Biola University for my college studies, a relatively conservative college. And even now I attend First Baptist Church of Palmdale I pretty traditional Baptist church. When I was younger, due to my parents, family, school and church I was a pretty right wing conservative little bugger. Slowly I have moved more and more away from my roots. Such as, I now oppose the death penalty across the board, I believe that rehabilitation is much better option then incarceration, and other things. I guess I didn’t know it, but I have slowly moving towards the center of life and I find that I am now what you consider an emerging Christian. Had you asked a few months ago what that meant I probably would have had to cobble together an answer from what little I knew, but now after reading Phyllis Tickle’s new book I understand more where I am from and where I am going.

Phyllis Tickle is not a trained Theologian, but in her role as one of the founders of the Religion department of Publisher’s Weekly she has had a unique position to see how Christianity and in particular writing about Christianity has shaped and evolved over recent years. Tickle recognizes that now, as has happened in the past approximately every 500 years, the church goes though a big change, and we are currently in the midst of one such change, which she has been coined the Great Emergence.

In the book Tickle examines the idea of the church having a major change every 500 years or so. She presents the work of Pope Gregory I around the late 500’s who being the first Pope from a Monastic background, placed much church authority in monasteries. Then she reminds us of the Great Schism which happened around 500 years later and saw the separation of East and West in the Church. Thirdly Tickle presents the Great Reformation which happened another 500 years later and separated the catholic church from the protestant church. Now the author suppose we are coming into a Great Emergence. The next major change in the Christian Church.

I found the details of the previous three to be interesting but a bit lacking. I would of liked to of learned more, but I suppose they were just to provide a background for what she had to say about the current emergence.

As far as the great emergence, Tickle focuses mainly on North American Christianity and presents it as coming to center of the church, and moving away from solo scriptura. Her work unfortunately is brief and does not cover or go into detail as much as I would like. She doesn’t really delve too much into the purpose of the emergence or the goal of the emergence, but I suppose she much like the rest of us don’t know.

This book is more about taking a step back, seeing that things like this have happened before and are obviously happening now. Many complain that she is too vague, but I can’t blame her, she is just telling us that something is going on and we shouldn’t be afraid and here is a little of what to expect. It is not a work full of theological details or scripture references. But more then anything a work of Church History and Church Future. As I have said before I would of loved more detail, but I believe time will fill in those details on it’s own.

The New Year

I realize that no one reads anything I write, but I figure I might as well continue to write something online just to keep my mind working and remind myself how to assemble a coherent paragraph every now and then, so on that note, Happy New Year.

2nd of January Anno Domi MMIX

I hope everyone had a pleasant New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Amy and I spent it somewhat uneventfully. We did have a really nice dinner on New Year’s Eve, I prepared a baked Lobster tail with panko bread crumb/garlic topping along with a rice side that turned out pretty nice. We then stayed up till midnight and had a little champagne toast, and promptly ran to bed to fall asleep. As Amy would say “We are old.”

New Year’s day consisted of sleeping in, playing video games, and then going over to my parent’s place for an early dinner. My Mother cooked a real Prime Rib roast that was excellent. I do loves me a good prime rib. I hoping for my birthday this year to go to Lawry’s in Beverly Hills as they are supposed to have the world’s best Prime Rib.

That evening we then went out and put my parent’s new fire pit through it’s paces, even toasted some marshmallows and made samores. My brother Reid was still in town too, he heads home early Saturday morning.

So do I have any resolutions this year? I suppose. I of course would like to loose some weight, read more, pray more and delve in to spiritual disciplines more. I don’t make promises but we will see how it goes. I did recently finish the new book by Phyllis Tickle and I plan to review that very soon.