The ups and downs of a regular day

Today was a typical day in some respects, quite different in others. Right after breakfast this morning we took the truck to the mechanic. It's been acting goofy, losing power when cold and on the boat ramp. Since a truck that won't pull a boat is about worthless, I decided to take it in. Turns out that one problem was that the timing belt was so worn as to be loose and affect the amount of power. May have other problems too, but they won't be able to tell until they fix the belt for roughly $300. Sad thing is that I could do it myself if I had the time. Oh well... Supposed to get it back tomorrow.

We also got our driver's licenses changed today and registered to vote, virtually assuring a jury summons some time soon.

I had class today, and was all convinced that I was ready, having read what I thought the reading assignment was, only to look a the syllabus 10 minutes before I left the house to find out that I hadn't read everything. Turns out that it didn't really matter anyway.

After class I went to get a parking permit, having gotten a warning the other day. I got in line, paid $75 for a permit for the truck and another 5 for a second one for the car, and had to go back out to the car to get the license number. When I got there, you guessed it, a ticket! I actually got a ticket for no parking permit while I was in line to get a parking permit! The lady at the permit office agreed with me that the situation was ridiculous, and so she signed my ticket appeal form to verify that I was actually buying a permit at the time the ticket was issued.

But wait, the fun doesn't stop there! I got home to find that we'd received something odd in the mailbox. There was the usual mail, and an envelope with no address, return address, or stamp. On the outside was written "Get a babysitter & go out for a nice dinner. Grace & peace be with you." Inside was $70 cash. Pretty cool! We're pretty stumped about who would do such a thing, although we have some suspects.

As if that wasn't enough fun for one day, we went to Walmart to exchange one of the batteries from my boat, it having gone stone cold dead after only three months. Got another one for free again, I think the fifth one in two years, all free except the first. If they made a decent battery, then they wouldn't need a one year free replacement warranty, now would they?

After that we came home and ate dinner and I translated 1 John chapter 2 from Greek to English, which took about two hours. That was all I could stand, so now I'm blogging a bit.

Like I said, in some ways a typical day, in others, kind of unique.
Jason

A Realization

One week into grad school and I've already had a breakthrough, albeit a small one. In having to introduce myself several times and talk about what I want to do with my life (still a major question), and in listening to others tell their stories, I figured something out: I still care.

Some folks come out of a tough breakup after a long relationship and swear that they never want to date again. I'll admit that I went through that stage, and I won't deny that there are still alot of wounds to heal before I am ready to go again, but I think I want to give it a shot. I care too much for people, particularly the lost and misguided, and I think I have too much to say to keep quiet.

I'm not there yet and may not be for a while, but I'm getting back in the game.

Congrats to the Crawfords and others on BRAC deciding to keep RRAD open.

Stan and Ann, I finally met Gabe Peterson.
Jason

Sicks Munce Ago

I saw a T-shirt one time that said "Sicks munce ago I kouldn't even spel gradjuwit and now I are one." Let's see... six months ago would be February... Six months ago I hadn't even concevied of being a graduate student, and now "I are one." Six months ago I was the father of one, employed for a nice salary at a good church with a successful youth ministry. Now I'm the father of two, selling camping supplies for 7 dollars an hour and going back to school. Quite a bit can change in six months. That's enough nostalgia for the day.

In other news, I apparently didn't forget everything I ever knew about Greek. I had to take a placement test yesterday to see if I had to take beginning Greek again or if I could jump straight to the intermediate class. I had to write a paper in the last two weeks, and I've been working full time, so I didn't study anywhere near enough, but I managed to pass. Second year Greek it is!

Still running some. It's been hard to get it in my schedule. It is getting easier to run... must be getting stronger.
Jason

Sports Metaphors

Some people really don't like when preachers and teachers use sports metaphors. Some people just aren't sporty. Even so, the great apostle Paul wasn't afraid to use a sports metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9:24 - "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to win the prize."

Some of you know that I used to run cross country in high school. Since that time, I have occasionally taken up running in attempts to "get back in shape." I even ran a 5K in 2001. Usually I'll run for a few weeks or months and then quit, deterred by the weather, by my schedule (good luck running at summer camp) or by just getting tired of running with no purpose.

Well, I'm back at it. So far I've run three times, 2 miles, 3.5 miles, and almost 4 miles. The attempted four-miler was this morning. I didn't quite make it the whole way without walking. I'm just not there yet.

I ran this morning at a running trail in Round Rock. We're down visiting my parents since I had a couple of days off in a row before school starts. The trail is nicely groomed gravel and winds along a creek, up the side of a dam, and along a lake that's probably 20 acres. That's the story, here's the lesson: progress doesn't come without pain, no matter how nice the surroundings. Now for the immediate applications...Walnut said hundreds of times, "We are building a better building. Will we build a better church?" Like my run this morning: a new building is pretty scenery, but pretty much irrelevant to success or failure. I'm not in the trenches at Walnut any more, so I don't know for sure the state of the progress. Even so, I can still assure that progress won't come without pain. However, it is important to distinguish between the pain of injury and the pain of success. Soreness after a tough run is your body's way of telling you that you're making progress. Soreness after beating yourself in the head is your body's way of telling you that you're an idiot. So I ask the questions: is there pain? Remember the cliche- no pain no gain. What kind of pain is it? The pain of success or the pain of defeat? A strong healthy church is the church that puts itself through the pain of training, the pain of stretching limits, the pain of pushing itself beyond its abilities. I want every church in the kingdom to be that kind of church, especially the ones where I have served and built relationships.
Run.
Stretch.
Grow.

Academy, Lightning, and a Piece of History

Sorry I haven't been blogging, I've been at work. I will have worked every day from Thursday through tomorrow, including a fun 2-11 shift last night. With tax-free weekend they wanted all hands on deck so to speak.

Even so, I got up early to go fishing, since I don't have to be at work till 4 p.m. and Shana's out of town. It was nice and cool this morning, and cloudy. I caught a nice 14 incher right off the bat, from a point by the boat ramp... good sign. I ended up missing about 5 more on a Pop-R. They'd whack it, but not eat it good, and not ever come back for seconds. I wasn't ready to quit since they seemed to be biting fairly well, but a thunderstorm came up with lots of lightning, so I decided I was better off in the library alive than at the lake dead.

As for the piece of history, I found out today that my history making is going to be delayed, so I'll delay putting it here again. BTW, it is one of the "benign topics" that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Let's just say for now that I'm going to take a piece of history, cut it up in little pieces, and make something nice for myself. (This is not an ominous prediction of conflict-causing verbage, so chill.)
Jason

Fantasy Land

I don't know if you've noticed, but one of my links on the sidebar is to ESPN's Fantasy Bass Fishing. Like most fantasy leagues, you pick a group of "players" and your success is determined by how they perform in the sport. BASS hosts eleven tournaments per year with the same pros, so a fantasy league becomes possible.

The last tournament of the year, the Bassmaster Classic, was this past weekend, and Kevin VanDam won. He also won two other tournaments this year. Lucky for me, he was on my fantasy team. Now the bragging part: there were about 20,000 participants in the fantasy league. I ended up placing 199th. That's better than 99% of the other fantasy fishermen. Now if I could just find a way to translate that into getting bass out of the mudhole north of town and into my boat...
Jason