livelo-fi.blogspot.com

alright, as mentioned a few posts ago i have launched a new blog which will run tangentially with orange peel. it is named "local fidelity," which is my attempt to promote faithfulness toward one's community. i am taking on the personal challenge to ride my bike and shop locally as often as possible to simultaneously save gas and meet my community. if you would like to follow my progress please tune in to livelo-fi.blogspot.com. thanks and gig-em.

ant hills

ants and men. i often question the existence of ants during the summer. i manage to wander into a fire ant pile at least once a year. as a kid i was ant-bitten on a regular basis since most of my time was spent in the grass or in bushes or even in trees (yes, they climb trees and they will bite you even if it's not their tree.)

ants are strong willed and single-minded. if you get in their way they will bite the crap out of you. they are precisely created and equipped to fulfill 3 purposes; protect the colony, protect the queen, bite people. as far as advanced science has been able to tell there is little else ants worry about. everything they do concerns their mission. eating is necessary in order to protect the queen and the colony, and to bite the crap out of people. sleeping, if they sleep (there has been no documented proof of ants actually sleeping,) would theoretically be necessary to stay awake in order to protect the queen and the colony, and to bite the crap out of people. arguably ants are necessary only to spite mankind.

are there any ants that have broken the mold by throwing off the bondage of societal expectation? are there any parent ants ashamed and aghast of their children ants who have run off to find freedom and individuality at the expense of the parent's values? we never hear about those ants. unfortunately when we see that lone ant we can hardly ask and expect a reasonable answer. ants are viciously self-absorbed. so perhaps there actually are free-thinking ants out there while we believe every one of them to be following blind instinct or social pressure. maybe there are entire colonies that differ politically from others. how could we know?

lo-fi

i'm trying something new. my lifestyle needs to compensate both for the rising gas prices and a need for community. my solution is simple, yet profound. it's my bicycle; my sweet, chromoly, single speed, 29er, mountain bike. my primary mode of transportation is no longer my gas-loving jeep but my mountain bike. i bought it for commuting and i will use it for commuting.

i'm currently working on a new blog site which will run parallel to orange peel, dedicated solely to an experiment i have dubbed as the "living lo-fi." i want to be faithful to my locale, hence "local fidelity" or "lo-fi." catchy, no? is my boredom obvious? no, no, i earnestly believe there is a better way to live, a way more fulfilling than our oil-dependent, automobile commuting lifestyle, and it's all about community. i live close enough to work, to school, and to a market to ride my bike nearly everywhere. i believe most people can set up their lives in a similar fashion by simply giving it a bit more thought. so, to read about my experiment and my concept of an ideal living model, check back soon and i will post the new blog address.

the perfect storm and the perfect sermon

the last twelve hours have been extraordinarily eventful. last night several raging thunderstorms came through the north texas area, the roughest of which hit my little neighborhood at about 3 am. that evening i had heard a lot of bother about tornadoes touching down nearby blah blah, tornado watch from 3-7 am blah blah. i'm invincible, i can sleep through anything.

i can sleep through anything unless it's 500 mile an hour winds trying to shatter my windows! i awoke to what sounded like the gates of hell opening. realizing in an instant that the walls of my home were probably constructed of cheap plywood from the '4o's, and my windows are in no way double paned, maybe 1/4 paned or 1/3 paned, i flew out of my bed and into the bathroom expecting the roof to come off above my bed at any moment. you are supposed to go into the bathroom or something in a tornado, right?

so there i was, lightning detonating all around me like mortars, the power was out and i was in my boxers. great. my home is about to be catastrophically destroyed and i'm in my boxers. when the relief workers from louisianna come to pick up the shattered splinters of wood that at one point formed my house i'll be wandering around in my boxers. then they'll give me a crummy blanket and i'll look even more pathetic on the 5 o'clock news.

all this flashed through my mind in about three seconds, between my bed and the bathroom.

after gaining composure and courageously reentering my room, expecting at any moment for a car tire to hurtle through my window, i located a pair of pants and t-shirt. better safe than sorry. then i realized my roommate joe was probably still on his way back from houston and caught in the middle of the apocalypse! actually he made it in about 10 minutes before the raging maelstrom descended on carroll park.

in the end we were fine, the house was fine, there was no tornado, and i felt like a pansy. at least the storm knocked out all the power in a three mile radius so class was cancelled until ten.

but it's not over. i'll keep this last part brief. i apologize before hand if this next section is less than constructive criticism but i can't help it.

i went to chapel today like a good seminary boy. our speaker for the morning was the pastor of the local "baptist temple" located about three blocks from my house. my reasons for not visiting it despite its proximity are that it is named a baptist "temple," it has a red light up cross out front, and a sign that says "we love our pastor and our king james bible." call me shallow.

i'll give it to the guy, he is passionate and on a fundamental level i really agree with his message. we are in a pivotal point in christian history and specifically christian history in america, and areas of life if not life itself will be sacrificed if we truly live our faith and proclaim the gospel. now personally, in preparing this message i would have left out the explicit 4 minute address from the movie patton! you know the one. i recommend you listen to it again and contemplate performing it at a seminary, and not just any seminary but southwestern, the bastion of southern baptist conservativism. yikes. i cringed and later laughed...a lot. the climax of this four minute rendition followed the reference to germans as "krauts" (i have several german friends who were each present in chapel.) it was most certainly the graphic description of putting your hand in what was your best friend's face, now a lump of goo. and we can't leave out the part about cutting down your opponent's belly and greasing your tank tracks with his guts which is very relevant to the type of warfare we wage spiritually.

this coloful illustration and many many more were employed to explain that as christians we are called to give ourselves in many ways for the cause of christ. i would love to share everything, but i'm afraid it would be less out of good natured humor and more out of my own false sense of pride. so, i'll leave it at that and say that despite its inappropriateness he made a point and i was entertained, though i think paige patterson our president was less than entertained.

what's crack-a-lackin'

what i assume to be a stray cat appeared at my back door tonight. it's a female. i know that because it's also knocked up. i found myself wishing i could take it in and insure its safety though i just fed it some turkey and sent it off, hopefully to find some place warm. i'd be alright with a kitten. or i could give them all away and make other people happy. it would make life interesting for a while that's for sure. i am more of a dog person. puppies would be clutch.

enough about animals.

i hope the cat finds some place warm and safe...like my roommate's closet...

ok, enough about animals.

remember my post a while ago about potentially moving to college station? i was pretty convinced of it and i made a strong argument for college station. well, i visited it over easter and it was great. i saw friends, went to living hope, spent time with family. all in all it was a really pleasant weekend. though despite the fun and great company i realized while there that college station is no longer mine. fort worth is mine for the time being. i have a job to do here which i have to take seriously, and it would be much more difficult to do so in college station.

my job first and foremost is school. seminary has taken on a much greater importance than college ever had. college was for a career. what was i going to do with one of those? but what i'm working for now is so much greater than myself and any career i could ever pursue. i am training now to effectively bring others into the kingdom of God, to teach His word well, to disciple His church. my teacher today made the point that we should take our training as seriously as any doctor, professional athlete, professional musician, you name it. it's true. i'm sick of anti-intellectual christianity. if you do not seek God with your mind you are not seeking Him with all of your heart. people fear "academic" faith so they swing way over into the realm of experiential faith. neither are good purely in themselves, study improves upon faith just as well as experience. yes, there are ivory tower theologians, and seminary students in it for the wrong reasons, but i tell you my professors are some of the most impressive christian men i have ever met. don't be afraid to dig into the word for all it's worth.

so i will stay in fort worth for the next two and a half years, preparing in many ways for a lifetime of ministry. it's not too much to ask, there are much worse places to live. i live in luxury here; i have a bed, a couch, clothes, food, a/c, heat, blankets, friends, coffee, and books. i can live off a $7 an hour job. God has made my way easy thus far. i've grown to love the people here and my heart has drastically changed towards the seminary and its students.

i've also been given a great opportunity to serve in a house church pastored by my friend willis. essentially it's a church plant. at one point it may have been a functional baptist church but in the last few years it broke and collapsed. willis inherited a church building and twenty or so congregants. he has done well, making difficult choices for the kingdom and in the process alienating several of the few members who eventually left as well. it's just as well if they refuse to follown godly leadership. the house church is in a stagnant part of town with little to no growth. it's a mediocre area without really any church presence. the congregation is small, needing discipleship and a lot of prayer. it is entirely in the Lord's hands or at least more evidently so.

as you know if you read my blogs that i want to plant churches, so i'm even more excited of the prospect of learning first hand its difficulties.