From Sampler to Sower

Yesterday I wrote about some of the best years of my life.  But reminiscing about the good years doesn’t quite make up for the fact that 2010-2011 has been one of the hardest years of my life so far.

Don’t get me wrong. My family is blessed in more ways than I can fully count. But for a number of reasons the past 12 months have been some of the most difficult I’ve faced.

I shared just a little over a year ago that due to the ongoing downturn in the economy and its effects on giving at our church, I and the rest of the paid associate staff at Middletown Church of the Nazarene would be facing a 50% reduction in salary. I said at the time that we were hoping it would be a short term adjustment. “Who knows,” I wrote last year “where our church will be financially a year from now?”

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I shared yesterday about our youth group’s favorite travel game, The Top Three.  On our ski trip this weekend, one of my favorite questions came as a surprise: What were your top three favorite years? Like most of the best questions in the top three game, it’s deceptively simple, but calls for some real thought and provides a unique insight into the lives of the players.  After some careful consideration, here are my top three as well as some reflections on what makes the good years so good.

1991

1991 was the best of my high school years, with 1990 a close second.  In October 1990 I finally got up the nerve to ask Michelle to go out with me.  By 1991 we were “going steady.”  The summer of 1991 was my turn to attend Nazarene Youth Congress in Orlando, FL. By the time my senior semester started (fall 1991) I’d found my social niche and loved school. I was on my high school speech team and made the all-conference team in foreign extemp.  In December of 1991 I graduated from high school a semester early and prepared to head off to Olivet Nazarene University in January 1992.

Update: And though I didn’t know it then, that was also the year @Bekkalynn was born.

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Anyone who’s on Facebook has probably seen the 25 things meme that’s been spreading like wildfire over there.  I myself was recently tagged, as was friend and fellow blogger Todd.  Not to be outdone, I succomed.  Here are my 25 things, reposted for your enjoyment.

Photo courtesy of annamon on flickr

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Wow . . .

It’s hard to believe 2008 is over and 2009 has begun.

But here I am at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Coldwater Blvd in Fort Wayne writing my first blog post of the new year.  (By the way, as Dunkin’ Dounuts go, this one is swank.  Plus free wi-fi.  A great place for some blogging on the run.)

I find myself marveling this morning.  I’ve been out in public on the major “days after” this year.  The morning after Thanksgiving was a madhouse.  The morning after Christmas, likewise.  Maybe even worse.  But the morning after New Year’s Eve might as well be the morning after the Apocalypse.  It’s like I have the whole world to myself.  Well, me and the hosts of Fox & Friends on Dunkin’s big screen.  Apparently they didn’t make the rapture either.

This New Year’s morning, I’m thinking about resolutions.  I’ve never been much of a New Year’s resolutions kind of guy.  In fact, I can’t remember ever making any in the first 34 years of my life.  But this year I’ve spent a good amount of my Christmas break re-thinking my life and ministry, evaluating what is and trying to envision what can be.  And so it is that I’m ready to do some goal setting for 2009.

So, without further ado, here they are . . .

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Recently a fellow youth minister whose blog (The Timbo Times) I read wrote about his love of hot chocolate.  I especially liked his description of coffee as “hot of water that’s been carelessly drained through dirty beans.”  It reminded me of my grandfather, who when asked in a restaurant what he’d like to drink, would invariably reply “bean soup.” But I digress.

I chided him that a true hot chocolate lover wouldn’t just write about it, he or she would share their favorite recipe for the drink.  I figured that I ought not council of others what I am unwilling to do myself, (and I was short a post for today), so here it is.  I will warn you, this is true hot chocolate.

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My friend and colleague, Todd Owens, recently had an interesting idea on his blog: set your iPod to random shuffle and list the first 15 songs that play.  Seemed like an interesting way to get a look into one’s musical tastes.  Of course, I put everything and anything on my 160GB iPod classic.  And given the fact that our youth ministry subscribes to YLO: the works from Interlinc, everything and anything ends up being a lot of things, many of which have nothing to do with my personal tastes.  (If they did, I can guarantee there wouldn’t be any KJ-52 albums on there.)  So I tweaked the challenge a little.  Here’s a random shuffle of the 197 songs in my “My Top Rated” playlist: (more…)