Isaiah 61

For our Christmas Eve Candle-light service, we went to our grandparents Methodist church, as we normally do. The pastor was very gifted, very organized, and a very good communicator. Nothing he said was particularly wrong or anything I disagreed with. Yet, I hated his message. (I usually hate people that use the word "hate" (and I hate irony), but if you think about it, in order to love something, you have to hate something; therefore, in my mind, I feel justified.) The jist of his sermon was this: God did the impossible through a virgin birth, so God can do the impossible in your life....what things in your life seem completely impossible to happen?....God can do it.

Martin, what's so wrong with that message? I could understand you maybe not getting much out of it, or maybe wishing the message was a little different, but why would you HATE it? Are you that arrogant with your non-Methodist ways that you hate anything that's doesn't meet your standard??

My response:
The pastor prayed earlier for God to bless all those who are less fortunate, who will have less joy this holiday season. That was nice of him, but what about all the people who are lacking joy right there in the congregation? What about all the people who are miserable, sad, depressed, and lonely in that church? The people who are finding out that nothing that they're getting for Christmas really satisfies them...the people who desperately want meaning in their lives but find none...the people who have been hurt by others, who feel unaccepted, unworthy, unlovable. You have this being the most attended service of the year, where there'll be tons of non-Christians, tons of people who realize something in their life is missing. Here's one of the best opportunities of the year to show how the Gospel of Christ, the coming of the Kingdom speaks into every single one of these people's situations, every one of these people's personal hell.....but you barely even give them a taste. You're sitting on a gold mine, but you don't really mention it. You have the medicine, but you give them none of it. If Christmas just stands as an example of how God can do unlikely things, then it doesn't meet the deepest need of the human soul. But if it's more than just an example, if it actually does meet people's greatest needs, then the coming of Jesus is the most relevant news ever.

Instrumental Songs (pun intended)

Songs that Have Actually Changed My Life (in no particular alphabetical order):

Smalltown Poets - The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes, and the Pride of Life
Red Mountain Church - Pensive, Doubting, Fearful Heart
Stavesacre - At the Moment
The Shins - New Slang
Andrew W.K. - It's Time to Party
Indelible Grace (Katy Bowser) - A Sinner's Cry
Peter, Paul, and Mary - The Cherry Tree Carol
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gasey Jr.
Stephen King (my x-roommate) - The Squirrel vs. the Volcano
Caedmon's Call (40 acres album)

Celtic Woman - Mo Chile Mear

PBS was so kind as to introduce me to the musical group "Celtic Woman" when they aired this concert on TV the other night (the youtube video does not come close to capturing the awesomeness of the concert). Given my celtic heritage, of course I love this type of music. But, I have never been more smitten, more wooed by any woman(s) on television than on that night. Jessica Simpson, Kiera Knightley, and Diane Keaton got nothing on these celtic women.

After doing hours of research, my hopes of a celtic marriage were foiled in light of my new discoveries: 1)they are already married, and 2)i can't pronounce their first names.

*Note: They are coming to the Fox in March.

Movie Review: Nativity Story

Things I liked:

-The fact that it didn't depict Mary as god-like

-It did a great job depicting what really happened back then

-The movie's focus on the humility of the characters and of God.

Disliked:

-it was a tad boring at times in the movie

-everyone in the theater clapped at the end; people feel like they have to because if they don't they're insulting Jesus or something.

Claim to fame sorta part II

THURSDAY NIGHT IN ESPRESSO ROYALE:

Aynsley (as Martin is on his way out after stealing some restaurant napkins): Martin, come over and say hi

(Aynsley is sitting with her uncle Louie Giglio who, if you somehow haven't heard of him, is maybe the most popular Christian speaker in the nation among college aged folk)

Martin (to Louie): Hi, you're famous.

Other than that awkward statement, the 25-minute conversation with him, his wife, and Aynsley was quite delightful. We even cracked jokes. Very down-to-earth people those Giglios.

Rant(ing)

Things that have recently peeved me:

Peeve 1) That voicemail lady that comes on for 40 unneccessary seconds on every cell phone. Do I really need to be told that when I'm done leaving my message I can simply hang up? Oh thanks, I had no clue.

Peeve 2) Ever watched football highlights? The announcer/anchor will say "watch this amazing 30 yard run by Joe Runningback!" Then the camera angle they use is so zoomed in on the runningback that you can't see anything else. You can't see the guys he's juking, or how fast he's going, or the tackles he's breaking. They might as well just show me a person running on a treadmill with a football in their hands.





Peeve 3) I like dessert. All guys do. Yet guys are not allowed to gather together to eat said desserts or they will all be considered fruity, or fruitcakish if you will. If I call all my guy friends up and say come over and we'll all eat dessert and have a dessert party, I would get punched in the throat for my gayness. Don't jump to conclusions, I don't actually desire to have a dessert party...I don't swing that way. I just don't like how a dessert gathering would never fly even though there's nothing inherently gay about it.

Peeve 4)
Crappy items that stores put out to appeal to the gift giver around xmas time. For example, LOST, the board game. The only people who will buy that is the gift givers who think "well, he likes the TV show LOST, and he likes chess which is a board game, so he'll like this." Even if it is a half-way decent game, where are you going to find 4 to 8 players who are willing to play it with you? Basically, stores know that it's not a quality product, but that people will still buy it hoping that their nephew will like it.



Peeve 5)
Ungrateful ducks

Humbling

You ever seen that list of "if the world were a village of 100 people"? (<--rhetorical question)Here it is in case you haven't.

If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

The village would have 58 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 7 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific
51 would be male, 49 would be female
82 would be non-white; 18 white
80 would live in substandard housing
67 would be unable to read
50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation
33 would be without access to a safe water supply
24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)
7 people would have access to the Internet
1 would have a college education
1 would have HIV

My claim to fame sorta

This is my friend Joanna Repsold. She bet several of her guy friends that if she ate a praying mantis, they would have to go to church with her for 4 consecutive weeks. As you can see, she won the bet.

What's cool is that she is in the top 50 most viewed videos on the internet for the year. She is considered an e-celebrity according to vh1 (i think).

This reminds me of the evangelist Mark Cahill who will oftentimes pay random people on the streets 5 or 10 dollars just to allow him to share the Gospel with them. Some Christians disagree with these types of methodology. I understand, but personally, I think it's awesome. What Joanna and Mark did communicates "Yes, I have so much confidence that Jesus satisfies and is real, as well as care about you so much that I am willing to sacrifice just so that you too can see this."

Ashamed at my toolness

The other day, the sun was beating down on my neck. I had a collared polo shirt on. Yes, I popped that collar, but only to block the sun's uncomfortably hot rays. Then, as people starting passing by, I took it down because I was embarrassed. I cared too much about my image to let them see me like that, even if I did have it popped for a legitimate reason. Then it hit me that I'm no different than the guys who actually pop their collars. Both of us are trying to be cool; the only difference is our definitions of cool.

Theirs: popping collars is cool.

Mine: being against popping collars is cool.

We are both tools either way.

(examples of tools)

My issue w/ Cosmo part II

Check this out...girl getting beautified for an ad. I admit I stole this from andypants's blog.