We live in a great house on the campus of Peninsula Covenant Church. It's one of five houses that the church owns for staff housing. Just last week one of our neighbors moved out, and the Smith family moved in. Jeff is our Children & Families Pastor. Their moving in has created quite a stir in the 'hood, because they have three very cool things they bring with them: a new baby, a dog, and a trampoline. A real, honest-to-goodness, big, round trampoline with a safety net and all.
So, for the last several nights, I've been heading out to the tramp with my iPod Nano and jumping for 20-30 minutes... It's surprisingly good exercise... surprising because it's actually fun. Tonight I listened to a cool mix of Michelle Shocked music and jumped for a long time...
Yesterday's Emergent Lunch was pretty cool. Sometimes, though, I feel like it's a contest to see who is the most hip or relevant person in the room. I sometimes feel like I have to be clever or witty or somehow ultra-spiritual. I know it's just my own insecurities... God, help me to just be myself! I sat across from a cool woman named Sheryl who happens to be Brian McLaren's editor at Jossey-Bass! We had a good discussion about our spiritual journeys... It was cool to meet Tony Jones and hear a little bit of his heart. But sometimes I feel like there's something contrived about this hip, cool spirituality. God, give us discernment about the way to really follow Jesus in the 21st Century!
David Crowder*Band has released what will probably be my favorite so-called "worship album" of the year. It's called A Collision, and it's great... From the banjo and barn-dance choir of "I Saw the Light" to the anthemic praise of "Here Is Our King" to the spooky Sufjan Stevens cover, "O God Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw? )" to the apocalyptic finale, "The Lark Ascending Or (Perhaps More Accurately, I'm Trying To Make You Sing)," this is a sweet record from start to finish. I've only been through it twice, but I'm looking forward to digging into it again in the morning.
The twins have been waking up at 5:45 every morning and climbing into bed with Luanne and me. We have relative peace as they snuggle with us until about 6:03, when they begin demanding breakfast. The next hour consists of our telling them to go play in their rooms and their coming in again and again to ask for breakfast, to ask if they can watch TV, to ask if we'll play with them, to snuggle and climb on our heads... I'm going to sleep now so that I can try to get up with them. I know someday I'll look back on these days and miss them... I keep reminding myself of that. Thank you, God, for precious, healthy children!