random statements

that last blog about truth or agenda made no sense.

i would like to own a dog and name him snuffleupagus but call him "gus" for short.

vespa scooters are the only vehicles that make sense.

i partially take that last statement back because bicycles also make sense.

in heaven we will get to know everybody as well as they can possibly be known because we will simply have the time.

i would look really good on a vespa scooter.

bad music is immoral.

i hope i'm not immoral when i play the guitar.

dishwashers are awesome and you people who have them don't truly appreciate them.

my bathroom faucet leaks.

if you want an outdoorsey feel at home just sleep in your sleeping bag.

i am still accepting applications for a scholarship wife.

a scholarship wife is defined as the following: attractive woman willing to marry me and work to put me through school.

apparently i resemble michael scott from the office.

tomorrow i will make a sling david and goliath style.

truth or agenda?

i am caught somewhere between trying to figure out what is correct and what needs to be correct. is this essential? yes. and is this essential? maybe not. does this action have everlasting consequences? if not is that reason enough to justify it? are there any actions that do not have everlasting consequences? what is truth and what is an agenda?

it is easier to deal in black and white.

i understand that we try our best to make things black and white, but things aren't always so clear and perhaps it's unfair to make them submit to our will. can we cast a verdict upon things that are not clear with such certainty? are we meant to? what do we miss out on when we err one way or another?

there are universal essentials no doubt, i believe that as much as anyone. though there are also essentials for you that are non-essential for me. in my opinion these are two valid statements that do not contradict each other.

thankfully the univeral essentials are clear. so should we try to universalize the unclear personal essentials? again, where is the line between truth and agenda?

scandalous

it's late and i need to be up early tomorrow, but i haven't posted in a month and a half.

i've been learning a lot lately. i'd say i have learned more in the last two months than the average person learns in a span of two months. take that, average people! i doubt you would truly care to hear about my specific learnings...actually, you would probably learn that i tend to learn things later than most that is, if i were to enumerate my recent learnings. i feel that most people already know what i know, and if they don't then they should. wait, that's not true. my learnings are on a much deeper level than the average person. i'm not saying i'm better than average, i'm just deeper than average, which, depending upon the reader, might also mean i'm better than average. see, i allow for a sliver of relativism in my daily life, so i'm also open-minded. unless you're wrong. now that i've genuinely insulted most people i will get down to business.

i've been having a good time lately. you're probably wondering, "how in the world has dominick been having a good time lately, i was under the impression that he complains about everything?" and to that i would retort with, "tisk, tisk." the first tisk would answer that yes, it probably does seem like i complain about everything, and the second tisk would serve to explain that i have been breaking every illegitimate rule set forth by the local religious sects (in the name of Jesus of course) and have found that i actually enjoy life more for it. listen, there are certain things of paramount importance to the christian faith. there are things indispensable to the effective witness of God's word, and then there are things superfluous and restricting. these extra things are added by man to serve man's purpose in what they perceive as godliness. this godliness, let's call it false-godliness, was not in fact dictated by God in His scripture. this false-godliness has been fabricated by a culture of christianity to create a facade of piety. there are things which are down right negative to the kingdom of God as dictated by God, and then there are things negative towards the kingdom of man as dictated by man. i will simply give the example of dancing. in the circles in which i run (not by choice; more by simple association) dancing was and still is to an extent looked down upon. dancing!? can you already see the argument against dancing?? that some use dancing to insinuate lewd behavior...to hint of acts that are immoral. this fact leads many to the reactionary response of eliminating dancing from the list of appropriate christian behavior and placing it on the much longer list of shameful, worldly behavior. let me insist that reactionary responses to anything are almost never okay. all things may be and usually are perverted. this does not mean that we eliminate them in their entirety. we must weigh them out and discern whether and how they should be reclaimed for Christ. dancing is one of those activities that should be reclaimed for Christ. we should enjoy dancing because it was created for us to enjoy in the Lord and with each other. scandalous!! i am not nearly at the end of my argument against reactionary responses governing Christian behavior, but allow me to finish this segment by encouraging us to closely evaluate with the bible, all the rules or guidelines we have created. evaluate everything you have been taught by this standard. examine your closest assumption, even the most obvious "fact." from there, with scripture as your guide, move toward the necessities. you will probably find that a lot of what you have been taught is very good. but i'm sure there is some of what you are taught that serves not God but man's created agenda. i find the process liberating.

good night.

summer

summers should feel satisfyingly short. typically they do. typically by the end i look back wondering where it all went and though disappointed for a moment i realize that a short summer means it was a good summer. this summer has been arduous and long. is this what adult summers feel like? not summer? i must admit; this summer has been long. have i said that? contrary to what its relative length might infer, it has not been bad. actually it has probably been one of my best summers though it was completed with less ease or grace than any other. i suspect i may be near one of those moments of epiphany that come at the end of a difficult time. then again my sensing an epiphany might very well mean one is certainly not around the corner. suffice it to say that i feel like i've gotten somewhere, with or without an epiphany.

life life life and my quarter life crisis

i've been trying to convince myself lately that i'm not wasting time. do you often feel like the things you're doing are trivial and that you're letting some life that's "out there" get away? well, i do. i think i've been watching too many movies and reading too many books. movies and books hardly ever focus on the mundane seasons of a person's life. yes, they may briefly note the mundane, bleak existence of the main character while introducing the story, but the purpose of doing this is to then provide a backdrop from which exciting change and adventure takes place. a number of movies come to mind when i think of such stories, garden state and stranger than fiction being the immediate examples. maybe i'm waiting for that film-worthy moment in my life, or maybe i just want my life to be epic. forget one film-worthy season in life, i want my entire life to be film-worthy! don't misunderstand me, i could not care less about my life becoming a film or story, and i certainly do not care to be famous. i do care to have an adventurous life. so far i'm not doing terribly, though i have one complaint against myself; all of my decisions are too calculated. i think too much. i worry too much about what other people would think. i am a slave to obligation. these are my difficulties being adventure. plus it's just not practical to the average human. i'm not alone in this, most people are not adventurous and most adventures are short-lived. sure, a lot of folks are "adventurous," but in cute ways. i'd say my adventurous expressions are "cute." the problem with cute adventures is that they are always controllable and they end as soon as the person experiencing them becomes uncomfortable. in my humble opinion a true adventure is uncontrollable and unpredictable. the point of an adventure is that you don't know the outcome and that you cannot easily control it, but that you hopefully remain alive to accomplish some important goal in the end.

i once listened to donald miller speak on "life as a narrative." it was brilliant and really enjoyable. the gist was that every good story has conflict. there must be something at stake in order to create an adventurous, interesting narrative. the bible is full of conflict and thus, interesting stories. miller asked an explanatory question using two scenarios the first of which involved a man working for a volvo, and the second involved a woman (his friend) working to build 1,000 wells in africa. his question; which would you care most about? if the man falls short of his goal and never gets the volvo it could be somewhat sad because perhaps he worked very hard, but not getting a volvo is hardly tragic. but if the woman fails to complete her goal of 1,000 wells we experience the loss of something much greater. lives are literally at stake, villages of people will not have easy access to water and their standard of living will remain low. see? not only must there be something at stake in the outcome of an adventure but getting there must be challenging. through challenge the adventurer is changed, matured, seasoned, and wiser for having the experienced the adventure. so let's view my criteria:

1. an adventure must be uncontrollable and unpredictable
2. there must be something valuable at stake (ethical value is a plus)
3. the person experiencing adventure must be changed (ideally for the better) in the process

reasonable? perhaps you say, "by this criteria i'm adventurous most of my life." you are either deserving of props or of a long vacation from adventuring. i imagine it can be pretty exhausting. after all of these considerations my question is whether adventure is sustainable. (there are some really annoying teenagers flirting at the table next to me. it's frigging horrible.) each respective adventure must have a conclusion. but is adventure as a lifestyle feasible? can adventure be somewhat practical so that interest and intrigue are still present in the midst of everyday? now i could end by saying something really lame like, "let's have an adventure finding the answers to these questions." i hate that stuff, haha. all i can say is that i'll be thinking about it and asking a bunch of people their opinions, and then hopefully i'll just go for it somehow.

goodnight.

so, what is new?

what is new? well, there are some new things. some things there are which are new to me in my life at this moment. i have a new job. that's new. i am leading worship at my church, which is a new experience. i have never led worship in my life. the church is beginning this new direction as a church focused on special needs families. that's a new concept in general. i made a few new friends today, and maybe these new friends will become old friends. old things are good. new things are good most of the time since they break up monotony, but old things can be extremely good. comfort is nice, and sometimes old things become comfortable, comfy even. but, sometimes old things become rote, boring, hindering to growth, and "comfortable" in a bad way. that's where new, shiny, new smellingy things shine in their shiny new way.

so, i lead worship now with a guitar and some vocal chords. up until a month ago i had not sung and played guitar simultaneously with much success, and i had never really sung in front of another person, let alone other people. this new found ability is absolutely a blessing from the Lord meant for this time. it's hard. leading worship is hard. i have so much more respect for men and women that make it look effortless. i have to put in a lot of effort for what i consider a mediocre outcome, but that's simply how it is right now. praise the Lord because it could be worse!

our little church

we've recently had some very exciting opportunites develop at bethel. a family from another church in fort worth approached us asking if we would consider a different focus; families with children who have special needs. essentially there is no church in the dallas/fort worth area geared primarily towards families with a special needs child. typically churches that do have a ministry for special needs members devote no more than a spare room and perhaps a sunday school teacher to them. this is not enough because problems are complex and to effectively engage a person with say, autism, a teacher must know their specific learning method. it's difficult for families to get along in church when their child has no understanding for social norms, has frequent uncontrollable outbursts, and receives little more than odd stares. there are even instances of families being asked to leave a church because of their child's autistic outbursts (one church issued a court order for against an autistic child.) this affects the entire family, alienating them from churches and church in general. there is a great need for churches that are open to such families and oriented towards educating their children biblically. there are so many families in the d/fw area with this problem who have such a desire for strong church community!! how could it be so easily overlooked? i ask this knowing that i would have gone the rest of my life without the thought dawning on me.

so, we're voting in a week and a half on this change. if all goes well, and i'm pretty sure it will, then a number of families with special needs children will move into our body and begin work with us immediately. we are currently connected to a network of families of children with autism in texas. after a lot of training and months of planning and structuring and working out kinks we will be ready for a relaunch. i'm incredibly excited about all of this. this opportunity without a doubt is from God. there is no way we could have thought of this, sought it out, and made it happen on our own, no way we could have brought this idea even past idea phase without the men and women that have come to us with their expertise and heart. not that we're past the idea phase, but i'm confident we will get there. i believe our small church body is equipped to handle the task and will rise to leadership. i am beyond excited!

a fantastic aspect to this vision is that it by nature breaks the mold of the standard church. we have to rethink everything. EVERYTHING. there will be typical church ministry because usually only one child in a family has special needs, leaving the rest of the family for a more typical ministry model, i.e. youth groups, small groups, etc, but the heart of the need is the child. i believe that at the root a church with this focus will discourage folks from simply showing up on a sunday without considering the true use of a church and their true role in a church. it won't be comfortable and it will not be smooth. i hope that everyone who does become a member will do so for a reason deeper than going to church just because it's sunday morning. i hope that by its nature a church with this focus will challenge us to servanthood.